Night Walk - John McKeown - Bog

Rather than "emotion recollected in tranquillity," many of these short poems encapsulate the aggravations of love untempered by any fireside philosophy. Unrealizable lusts of the eye, unrequited attachment, and moments of realized and imaginary passion are concentrated into cameos and carbuncles - "glimmering tokens of memory." A calmer but no less acquisitive eye is turned on manifestations of nature, while the taken-for-granted basics of our human background - day, night, and the elements - are imbued with beauty and mystery.