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Synopsis

Back of Beyond by Geoff Hattersley

As well as a range of new poems, this book contains a selection of Geoff Hattersley’s work taken not only from his three major collections but also from many smaller volumes published over the past twenty years.

"There is real gusto in his work as well as a manic but controlled humour. He can evoke odd or unnerving states of mind, enigmas, private terrors, domestic emergencies, with techniques or ways of looking at things which seem designed to give the familiar a good shake. Cheeky, imaginative, cerebral, witty – it is poetry with a lot to say for itself." – Douglas Dunn

"Not many other contemporary poets can represent the rhythms and tensions of our times as successfully as Geoff Hattersley." – Jim Burns

The Drummer

He claimed to be a drummer
just a drummer

though we couldn’t help but notice
the sticks in his hands, the obscenity

the way he’d stare, stare
ahead as he drummed

disturbing with his drums
his drumming the neighbourhood

stirring things up, things
best left unstirred, yes

at times directly polemical
this this this this drummer.

We could break his hands
and we did break them.

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