80 at 80

" A reminder - and an affirmation - of Paul Durcan's singular contribution not just to Irish poetic culture but the broader world of contemporary poetry" Irish Times For fifty years the poet Paul Durcan has explored and questioned a world both real and imagined. Steeped in the goings-on of Ireland and preoccupied with its concerns, he has delighted, enriched and unsettled his readers. His prodigious output of more than twenty collections bursts with poems that are courageously personal and passionately spiritual – a body of work that contains multitudes. ‘The great enemy of art is the ego’ says Durcan. ‘It keeps getting in the way. One needs the ego to disappear so that I become you; I become the people walking up and down the street.’ First published in 1967, Durcan remains the most of companionable of poets. His vivacity and ability to surprise has never been clearer than in this new selection of eighty of his finest poems, published in celebration of his 80 th birthday. EDITED BY NIALL MACMONAGLE WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY COLM TOIBIN