Some of the Things I’ve Seen

$14.95

Winner of the inaugural Yeats Poetry Prize presented by Yeats Society Sligo.

In her newest collection, Sara Berkeley follows a number of sightlines: watching the landscape from the window of a plane, contemplating the effects of climate change, witnessing human vulnerability and resilience as a hospice nurse during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Her gaze traces the coastlines of the Pacific Ocean and moves with a coyote through the California desert to the Palio horse race in Sienna, a return to Ireland, and a migration to upstate New York. A marriage ends, forest fires spread, and a new love takes root in winter. Throughout, Berkeley maintains a tender awareness of the threats that surround us, especially for the children born into this increasingly uninhabitable world, as well as a keen appreciation of the passion and poetic insight we will all need to survive.

Some of the things I’ve seen
still have a beat inside me:
suffering of the dying,
counterweight of trees aflame,
pull of tide by the moon,
sandhill cranes against dream.

– “Wood Thrush”

Praise for Sara Berkeley

“Berkeley’s bravery is magnificent, her palliative courage simply astonishing.”
– Thomas McCarthy, Dublin Review of Books

“This is a book of almost apocalyptic journeys, alive with colour and movement across huge vistas.”
– Martina Evans, The Irish Times

“This collection is rendered with unwavering honesty as well as the understated humanity and grace that are hallmarks of her work.”
– Dermot Bolger, Sunday Business Post