Wild Blue [Paperback]

Frances Williams won the 1999 Eric Gregory Award for her first book, Flotsam. The poems in her new collection are the product of a restless and inventive intelligence. Capable of ruminating with grace and flair on such diverse personalities as Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and Elvis Presley, and such places as Las Vegas, Amsterdam, Australia, and Greece, Williams moves confidently between the metaphysical and the modern, combining a delight in abstract ideas with sensuous physicality. These are poems of great range, each one bejeweled with a color and cut characteristic of Williams' assured style.

The poems in Wild Blue are the product of a restless and inventive intelligence. Capable of ruminating with grace and flair on such diverse personalities as Isaac Newton and Elvis Presley, Williams moves confidently between the metaphysical and the modern, combining a delight in abstract ideas with sensuous physicality. This new collection proves the early promise of her first book, Flotsam, published when the author was just nineteen.

Frances Williams was born in Bridgend in 1968. She received a BA in Fine Art from Liverpool University and an MA in Sculpture from Chelsea College, London. An Eric Gregory Award winner, her poetry has appeared in various publications including Ambit, Planet, Poetry Ireland Review and Poetry Wales, for which she has been a regualr columnist. Her reviews and articles have appeared in The Guardian, The Independent and Time Out. She works as a freelance editor and writer in London.

Found Objects

I search for something
In the room and find
My trousers on a chair
Crossed in a big kiss.
Slugged shapes take
To each other and make
The most of chance
Encounters. Last night's
Candle drops its black
Whisker to leave a mark
Of darkness on the shelf.
And suddenly the click
Of the boiler sounds
Like the work of a mind
Of logic. That realised,
The stains of cups
Link in a venn embrace
Like magic hoops
Tangled and loosened
Through distances of thirst.