The Last Falcon and Small Ordinance

The publication of Dublin-born Paul Perry's first collection of poems in 2003 saw him heralded as "a prodigiously gifted poet" by Fred D'Aguiar, for whom each poem "bristles with life and longing, intelligence and wit." The Orchid Keeper (2006) saw that promise confirmed by a book of almost ceaseless motion, energised by the rhythms of thought and navigating between the confessional and the visionary. Taking its title from the defensive arms which, like everything else, vanished with the doomed late 16th century settlement at Roanoke, Perry's new collection explores memory and trace, the stories that survive us and those in which we do not always recognise ourselves. From meditations inspired by historical events to poems which treat of a brother's illness, Perry's imagination ranges freely through these predominately short-lined poems, resulting in work which is as lively on the page as it is likely to remain in the reader's memory.