Afterburn

In 'Afterburn', Blake Morrison returns to poetry, his first calling, to offers scenes from his own life and the lives of others. In psychology, 'afterburn' refers to the time before a past event is assimilated - an idea that resonates through these poems (which themselves linger after reading) about memory and our attempts to articulate, shape or contain it. Throughout the collection, not least in two extraordinary sequences - one about his sister, the other about Elizabeth Bishop - the poet sees with new eyes the turning points in a life's accidental course.