The first thing to say about this book is that it’s beautiful; I’m used to reading slim volumes of verse that all, no matter how good or indifferent the content is, tend to look the same. ‘A Tree with a Thousand Wings’ is gorgeously small like a pocket diary, hardbacked and presented in a slipcase; it feels like something you want to treasure, to return to again and again as its wisdom see...

Trees on Bear Road, Brendan Cleary, Sunk Island Publishing, £3.50 Reviewed by Jane Holland.

Still chipping away at the streetwise wordface, long-established poet Brendan Cleary excels at the pub anecdotal:

this guy at the urinal
turned round and stared
vomited white bile
the insides of his stomach
then crashed on the tiles
& died there & t...