Floating the Wood

About the Book: 

The places in Floating the Woods are mainly Scottish, stretching from the Borders to Orkney, taking in Edinburgh, the Tay estuary and the River Ness. Through these landscapes move figures from the past - real, legendary and imagined - as the routes of Romans, Vikings and Celtic saints are followed by later figures such as Wordsworth, James Hogg and John Muir. Further afield, the First World War casts a long, dark shadow over otherwise idyllic English and Belgian scenes. There are alphabet, calendar, list and found poems, dealing with imaginary shades of blue and the blue and the imponderables of etiquette.

Reviews: 

plenty wit, and enough sighs ALEC FINLAY

List the things that matter, and what is likely to appear are stories, and buildings, the birds that fly between them, the hills and streams and skies that surround them, the ordinary stuff of everyday life lived along side the felt presence of ancient recent history. Ken Cockburn's new collection captures all this... in a gloriously demotic voice that remains deeply immersed in the long traditions of poetry, he paints space, and place; and in his hands, language finds a mouth. JEN WEBB

About the Author:

KEN COCKBURN is a poet based in Edinburgh. His first collection Souvenirs and Homelands was shortlisted for a Saltire Award in 1998, and a second collection On the Flyleaf was published by Luath Press in 2007. He was awarded the Arts Foundation Fellowship for Literary Translation 2008, and has twice re-ceived commendations in The Stephen Spender Poetry Prize. Formerly Fieldworker and Assistant Director at the Scottish Poetry Li-brary, he has run countless poetry sessions for children and adults in-doors and outdoors, in schools, libraries, museums, care homes and gar-dens. He also runs Edinburgh Poetry Tours, presenting guided walks with poems in Edinburgh’s Old Town.