The Book of Demons

by Barry Mac Sweeney (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  1997

  $17.09

  Barry MacSweeney wrote his first poem 42 years ago at the age of seven. He has been an alcoholic since he was 16; two years ago his hard drinking almost cost him his life. After a series of life-threatening fits and convulsions, which culminated with his being hooked up to life support in a hospital, MacSweeney underwent rehabilitation through detoxification in several hospitals and an addiction clinic. The Book of Demons records his fierce fight against addiction, the demonic visions that arose, and still arise, and the great love of those who helped save his life.Between times of ravaging, though, MacSweeney wrote the sequence Pearl, included here as a prelude to The Book of Demons. While Demons is a book of hard relentless experience, Pearl is pure lyrical innocence, a poetic sequence of harmlessness before harm set in. Pearl is an ode to the mute Northumbrian girl of the same name, whom MacSweeney taught to read and write on a slate in the rain, his first love.

• Used

  Paperback
  1997

  $3.48

  Adrian Mitchell is one of Europe's bestselling poets. His poetry's simplicity, clarity, passion, and humor show his allegiance to a vital, popular tradition embracing everything from William Blake to the blues. His most outspoken political poems, whether about nuclear war, Vietnam, prisons, or racism, have become part of the folklore of the Left, and have been sung and recited at demonstrations and mass rallies throughout Europe.