In this masterful first book of original poems, Iain Galbraith explores how people’s actions and experiences shape not only their own lives but the world around them. His poems are full of sharp observations and a level of detail which ground the reader in whichever world he presents, and while the settings vary from the mundane to the epic the language never fails to retain a sense of the fantastical. Through his words Galbraith is able to to take us on an emotional journey through love, grief, hope and discontent. After years of experience writing and translating poetry, The True Height of the Ear acts as evidence of Galbraith’s comfort in writing in a variety of different styles, creating a book of poems which consistently entice his readers.
First, raise your eyes. Look up into the sky.
Euripides
Through the window I watch the buzzard
mobbed from a branch by a pair of jays.
I am here to remember my mother,
who no longer knows where she lives
or her name, but wake to find my own
son’s head wrapped in a sheet
in my arms. There has been some error
surely? Cries the raptor, fainter,
gone is the house you founded once in brick
but not even you after so many lifetimes
know who you are or why, when summer slips
and the light grows silver and thin,
a gossamer chorus flies.