
Learning How to Sing
James Aitchison(Author)
Mica Press
Published on 21. October 2018
Book
Paperback/Softback
64 pages
978-1-869848-19-4 (ISBN)
Description
Learning How to Sing extends James Aitchison’s celebration of the natural world, and in his poems on islands and seaways the celebration is a form of pilgrimage. His compositions encompass other topics: for example James Aitchison on time ranges from recalling the origins of life to recognising the uncertain future of our world; his vision of lived time and mortality is expressed in elegiac lyrics for Duke Ellington, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton and lost friends.
From the publication of Brain Scans in 1988 to that of The Gates of Light many books later in 2016, the life and nature of the mind have been recurring subjects in James Aitchison’s poetry. In this ample new collection his poems on that theme are subtle, sometimes disturbing and, in the poems on his own mental states, darkly humorous.
Learning How to Sing, like all James Aitchison’s previous collections, shows his respect for language and the craft of poetry.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Colchester
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 5 mm
Weight
112 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-869848-19-4 (9781869848194)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
James Aitchison was educated at the universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde. In the 1960s he worked as a publicity copywriter at The Scotsman Publications in Edinburgh, after which he held a series of posts in universities in Glasgow and Edinburgh. He and his wife lived in Gloucestershire, England, for five years, returning to Stirlingshire in 2007. James Aitchison is a former poetry reviewer at The Scotsman
and The Herald.