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June 2021
Harry Ricketts has written and edited more than thirty books, but it is his poetry that has been the most constant, and the most personal in tone. From his 1989 collection Coming Here – in which he wrote the first of his ‘Secret Life’ poems – to his 2018 collection Winter Eyes, which reviewer Tim Upperton called ‘unsettling, moving, both estranging and empathetic’, Ricketts has written of friendship, youth, romance, loss, and the small moments that carry a lifelong weight, or light, within us. His voice is recognisable for its humility, intelligence and warmth. In Selected Poems, its full range is represented for the first time.
'Selected Poems showcases the work of one of our beloved poets. His poetry embraces humour, the necessity of books and reading, the ability of poetry to dance from melancholy to exquisite sheen, from plain speech to elegant soundings, to the whip and caress of life. This is an anthology to treasure.' —Paula Green, Kete Books
‘Harry Ricketts brings out into the sunlight the lumber stored in the attic of his mind. He clocks both the psychological distance between people here and the paradoxical sense of closeness in a lonely land.’ —David Eggleton, NZ Review of Books
Harry Ricketts teaches English literature and creative writing at Victoria University of Wellington. He is a literary scholar, biographer, essayist, reviewer, editor and poet. His publications include the internationally acclaimed The Unforgiving Minute: A Life of Rudyard Kipling (1999) and Strange Meetings: The Lives of the Poets of the Great War (2010). His previous collection of poetry is Winter Eyes (2018).
Cover: Michael Hight, Patetonga, 2011
Hardback with dustjacket, 210x138mm, 224 pages
