Very Selected – serie

‘Originality of thought and quality of execution’– Robert Potts, The Guardian

This Very Selected pamphlet brings together the best selected poetry by Michael Laskey, as part of The Poetry Business’ Very Selected collection.

Between Two Lit Rooms

Michael Laskey

After work, of ronce, to walk homenot to drive, foot hinged to the clutch,through town, but to walk on your ownout into the open dark,

the Plough, the Pole Star, Oriondistancing you from your day.Then down the ringing wrought-ironspiral staircase to the softer

asphalt of the all but emptycar park. One January night.Such space around you, such plenty:a good fifteen minutes walking

between two lit rooms, the split halvesof your life, the future, the past.But for now a skive down this path,the ridge of the fence furred with frost.

This Very Selected pamphlet brings together short lyrics selected from Mimi Khalvati’s six previous collections, including several of her ghazals. These poems inhabit that liminal space of longing or existential homesickness, while also being in love with the given world. Rather than trying to hold the page, they yearn to be weightless enough to become part of the surrounding air, its ever-changing light and shade.