Publication day for ANGEL HILL by Michael Longley

It’s publication day! Michael Longley’s eleventh collection, Angel Hill, is now out in the US, and we couldn’t be more delighted to share a poem from the volume with you today. It’s been quite a year for Longley, who was awarded the PEN Pinter Prize in June and nominated for the Forward Prize for Best Collection (the winners will be announced later this month).

Cataract

My eyeball’s frozen. I lie
At the bottom of a well.
Leaves decorate the ice.

Leaning on my eyelid Simon
Rankin breaks the surface
And reaches into my mind.

He brings implements with him,
Curious geometry,
Blades that keep fading away.

He restores the world’s colours.
He has discovered them
In my own dark kaleidoscope.

–Michael Longley, from Angel Hill (2017)