Life Is a Dream: 40 Years Reading Poems 1967-2007

Famous for his electrifying poetry readings, Paul Durcan marks four decades—from Endsville in 1967 to The Laughter of Mothers in 2007—of composing silently and reciting aloud with this magnificent collection. This moving collective is full of poems celebrating love and sex, self-mocking poems of underachievement, informative accounts of the lives of famous writers and artists, and tender, poignant verses commemorating the dead. Throughout his long career, Durcan has continued to make passionate and moving poetry out of his own and his country's misfortunes. He is by turns a surrealist, a mystic, an Irish comedian with perfect comic timing, and an angry champion of the oppressed. This unique volume undoubtedly reaffirms the constant vision and artistic integrity of one of the most powerful, humane, and original voices in modern poetry.