Domestic

Domestic is Mervyn Holzer’s first published collection of poems, chosen from across a period of roughly twenty-five years. The selection is based on a loose coherence around the implications of the book’s title. These are low-key pieces spoken plainly but with flashes of a colourful imagination and painterly eye. They are mainly in the lyrical tradition of so-called ‘true’ poetry (exemplified by Thomas Hardy, Edward Thomas, and Philip Larkin - poetry that strives for emotional integrity while paying due attention to the craft). Nevertheless, Holzer’s poems have a modern sensibility and a hint of comic irony. And they openly acknowledge that these days, poetry emerges between the cracks of a workaday life.