{"product_id":"oh-shenandoah-sarah-burns-9781912119011","title":"Oh, Shenandoah!: Very selected poems","description":"Oh, Shenandoah, \u003cbr\u003eI love your daughter.\u003cbr\u003eAnd though I felt comfortable, \u003cbr\u003eloving even, with so many others, \u003cbr\u003eI find I can no longer continue\u003cbr\u003emy life as an actuary and clerk\u003cbr\u003ein a middle-sized firm of city insurance brokers\u003cbr\u003ewithout her devotion, \u003cbr\u003elove, passion, desire, thrill, excitement, \u003cbr\u003ehand across the table on a cold winter evening, \u003cbr\u003eunwashed face across the pillow in the morning.\u003cbr\u003eI love your daughter\u003cbr\u003eand the earth turned on its axis when I did so, \u003cbr\u003eand whole seasons have shifted around the globe, \u003cbr\u003ethe ocean has swallowed up New York, Sydney, Tokyo, \u003cbr\u003eand caused a run on the pound, \u003cbr\u003ethe British Chancellor has resigned and the stars have altered\u003cbr\u003etheir paths.... \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAnd so on... \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThere is a kind of progression here, but I didn't want to jinx it by trying to describe it. Either way, many of these poems were written in my thirties - hence the 'thirtysomething' title taken from the television series of the same name and time.\u003cbr\u003e A small piece of nostalgia there...\u003cbr\u003e 'Oh Shenandoah' was intended as a kind of rhetorical acceleration. I had the idea waiting outside the only shower room on a Writing Space writing course in the Loire Valley and listening to someone inside singing the old Shenandoah song.\u003cbr\u003e That was my first published poem, which managed to scrape in as a finalist and runner-up in the national Observer-Arvon poetry competition in 1995. In fact, this and so much else I owe to Carol Cornish and Writing Space, under whose tutelage so many of these poems took their first faltering steps.\u003cbr\u003e I stopped writing poetry almost entirely about a decade later, when - having had children - I suddenly had no time to mooch around in the way that poets need to. I hope to go back to the practice one day, when I also hope I feel a little differently to the somewhat obsessive type revealed in these pages. - \u003ci\u003eDavid Boyle\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003e\" I loved it.I smiled from the first line. The passion \u0026amp; openheartedness shone through and showed the youthful spirit and honesty that still flows from David's fingers to this day. God fear the rest of us poets when he picks up his pen and writes poetry again..\" - Simon Zec\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Sarah Burns,David Boyle\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1912119013\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781912119011\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Real Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 12\/20\/2021\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 42\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.12lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.00h x 5.00w x 0.10d","brand":"Sarah Burns","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48442636140799,"sku":"9781912119011","price":6.75,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_b9d1019f-89cf-4e1e-ac40-8658d88ad877.jpg?v=1777198735","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/oh-shenandoah-sarah-burns-9781912119011","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}