As If To Sing Av Paul Henry

<p>The power of song, to sustain the human spirit, resonates through this new collection from Paul Henry. In ''Cave Songs'', a trapped caver, haunted by a ''ghost choir'', crawls back through songs to the sea; Welsh soldiers in ''As if to Sing'', pack their hearts into a song, on the eve of the Battle of Passchendaele, ''for safe-keeping''; a woman''s grief is ''unconscious of its song'' and a child sings ''a song with no beginning or end'' as father and son cross a bridge in the mist. </p> <p>Like the ''river’s trick'' in Nightlines, ''at once moving and still'', past and present share the same lyric moment in Henry’s work, the same ''torchsong'' of music and light. </p> <p> A familiar surrealism pervades ''The Key to Penllain'', the collection’s longest poem, set in the 1960’s. Its time-bending dream-sequence sees Greek gods sunbathing on a Ceredigion beach while two children dig for a key that could save the planet.</p> <p>Full of the musical lyricism admired by readers and fellow poets alike, ''As if to Sing'' is an essential addition to this poet''s compelling body of work.</p>