ISBN 978-0-9565328-5-5. 64 pages. Perfect bound.
Philip Lyons’ first full-length collection, drawing on a writing career spanning three decades — the universal themes of love and loss, with emotional honesty, compassion and wit. 64 pages, perfect bound.
Cover image: Chris Sims
There is a deep faithfulness in this poetry — no straining after the exotic, but a commitment to the common ground of lived experience. It holds true, with deft forms and lucid language and a quiet wit.
Philip Gross
Philip Lyons has the ability to use the unvarnished language of everyday speech while building his poems into formal structures on the page. His writing is both readily accessible and easy on the eye.
Moira Andrew
Sample poem
Country and Western
— Philip Lyons 2012
Tonight I’m putting on my cowboy bootsand going back to Texas for a while,the prairies where a cowboy has his roots.I’ll lie beneath the stars and smoke cheroots.This terraced house I live in cramps my style. My sweetheart doesn’t understand. She sighsand tells me everything I need’s at home.She’s frightened of the distance in my eyes.But I see open plains and endless skies,and nothing else will still this urge to roam. I’ll only be away a month or two.You probably won’t notice I’ve been gone,but don’t come looking for me if you do.I’m going where a cowboy can be blue.It’s something cowboys have to do alone.
