rooms,
grieving for all the things we could never hold again.
Forgive us for coming back. We didnât travel all this way
to break your hearts. We came to ask if you might heal the world.
Notes
Abaton: â . . . a town of changing location. Though not inaccessible, no one has ever reached it  . . . â â The Dictionary of Imaginary Places by Alberto Manguel and Gianni Guadalupi.
The Skylark â the epigraph is taken from the autobiography of John Muir.
The Ghost Train â loosely based on the lives of the filmmakers John and Roy Boulting.
The Lost Boy â The poem is based on Sonatorrek (Loss of Sons) from Egilâs saga and is written in the Viking ballad-metre âkviðuháttrâ .
The Iraqi Elements â tanur â a wood-fired oven.
Monster â the epigraph is taken from a letter written by Mary Wollstonecraft to her husband on August 30th, 1797, the day Mary Shelley was born.
A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Individual poems have appeared in the following publications:
13 Magazine, BODY, Earthlines, Entanglements, The Lampeter Review, The New Edinburgh Review, Gutter, Heavenly Bodies, Ploughshares, The Spectator, Atlanta Review, Irish Pages, Northwords Now, Transnational Literature .
Several poems were first published in collaboration with the photographer Alastair Cook in Everything We Have Ever Missed .
âA Pint of Lightâ was published by Bradford on Avon Arts Festival.
âSelf Portrait in a Dirty Windowâ and âPrimrosesâ were commissioned for the The Hunterian Gallery, Glasgow.
âThe Flight into Egyptâ was commissioned for the Felix Festival, Antwerp.
âThe Skylarkâ was originally published as a postcard poem by Alastair Cook.
âThe Ghost Trainâ was commissioned for the anthology Double Bill .
âThe Lost Boyâ was commissioned by the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at the University of Cambridge for Modern Poets on Viking Poetry and subsequently produced as a filmpoem by Alastair Cook.
âThe Big Pushâ was commissioned by the Fleming Gallery, London and subsequently produced as an animated film.
âOur Dadâ was commissioned by Kevin Reid for his anthology The Lordâs Prayer .
âThe Iraqi Elementsâ and âThe Doldrumsâ were translated during translations workshops in Shaqlawa, Iraq, as part of the Reel Iraq 2013 initiative. Many thanks to Lauren Pyott for writing the bridge translations.
âOnly a leaf for a sailâ was originally published online in â7 Sailsâ.
âThe Walkersâ was commissioned by the Dutch filmmaker Judith Dekker.
The Golden Mean
J OHN G LENDAY â S first collection, The Apple Ghost ,
won a Scottish Arts Council Book Award and his second,
Undark , was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation.
His most recent collection, Grain (Picador, 2009),
was also a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and
was shortlisted for both the Ted Hughes Award
and the Griffin International Poetry Prize.
Also by John Glenday
The Apple Ghost
Undark
Grain
First published 2015 by Picador
This electronic edition published 2015 by Picador
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
20 New Wharf Road, London N19RR
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-1-4472-5393-8
Copyright © John Glenday 2015
The right of John Glenday to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for
grieving for all the things we could never hold again.
Forgive us for coming back. We didnât travel all this way
to break your hearts. We came to ask if you might heal the world.
Notes
Abaton: â . . . a town of changing location. Though not inaccessible, no one has ever reached it  . . . â â The Dictionary of Imaginary Places by Alberto Manguel and Gianni Guadalupi.
The Skylark â the epigraph is taken from the autobiography of John Muir.
The Ghost Train â loosely based on the lives of the filmmakers John and Roy Boulting.
The Lost Boy â The poem is based on Sonatorrek (Loss of Sons) from Egilâs saga and is written in the Viking ballad-metre âkviðuháttrâ .
The Iraqi Elements â tanur â a wood-fired oven.
Monster â the epigraph is taken from a letter written by Mary Wollstonecraft to her husband on August 30th, 1797, the day Mary Shelley was born.
A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Individual poems have appeared in the following publications:
13 Magazine, BODY, Earthlines, Entanglements, The Lampeter Review, The New Edinburgh Review, Gutter, Heavenly Bodies, Ploughshares, The Spectator, Atlanta Review, Irish Pages, Northwords Now, Transnational Literature .
Several poems were first published in collaboration with the photographer Alastair Cook in Everything We Have Ever Missed .
âA Pint of Lightâ was published by Bradford on Avon Arts Festival.
âSelf Portrait in a Dirty Windowâ and âPrimrosesâ were commissioned for the The Hunterian Gallery, Glasgow.
âThe Flight into Egyptâ was commissioned for the Felix Festival, Antwerp.
âThe Skylarkâ was originally published as a postcard poem by Alastair Cook.
âThe Ghost Trainâ was commissioned for the anthology Double Bill .
âThe Lost Boyâ was commissioned by the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at the University of Cambridge for Modern Poets on Viking Poetry and subsequently produced as a filmpoem by Alastair Cook.
âThe Big Pushâ was commissioned by the Fleming Gallery, London and subsequently produced as an animated film.
âOur Dadâ was commissioned by Kevin Reid for his anthology The Lordâs Prayer .
âThe Iraqi Elementsâ and âThe Doldrumsâ were translated during translations workshops in Shaqlawa, Iraq, as part of the Reel Iraq 2013 initiative. Many thanks to Lauren Pyott for writing the bridge translations.
âOnly a leaf for a sailâ was originally published online in â7 Sailsâ.
âThe Walkersâ was commissioned by the Dutch filmmaker Judith Dekker.
The Golden Mean
J OHN G LENDAY â S first collection, The Apple Ghost ,
won a Scottish Arts Council Book Award and his second,
Undark , was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation.
His most recent collection, Grain (Picador, 2009),
was also a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and
was shortlisted for both the Ted Hughes Award
and the Griffin International Poetry Prize.
Also by John Glenday
The Apple Ghost
Undark
Grain
First published 2015 by Picador
This electronic edition published 2015 by Picador
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
20 New Wharf Road, London N19RR
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-1-4472-5393-8
Copyright © John Glenday 2015
The right of John Glenday to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for
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