Ian Hamilton Finlay
There's Ian trying to row his way out of the photograph, by leaf cover, a man in motion.
This is a superb collection which is a must for everyone's library. Or kitchen table. The poems are all tools, food, bits of fruit, colored leaves, messages. Thoroughly human.
The book is edited by someone who knew him better than anyone possibly could ~ his son Alec, and the long and luxurious introduction by Alec Finlay is a true gift of revelation and respect. Highlighted with photographs and stitches, as Alec calls it, from Ian Hamilton Finlay's letters.
The complete works will one day be twenty volumes, since Ian was poet, artist, builder, sailor and warrior, but this volume of over 300 pages is a wondrous start.
HOW TO BE HAPPY
They take all their rubbish
Down to the sea-shore
And the sea comes and
It takes it away
Twice every day.
They take all their rubbish
Down to the sea-shore
And the sea comes and
It takes it away
Twice every day.
IAN HAMILTON FINLAY
SELECTIONS
Edited and with an introduction by Alec Finlay
University of California Press
