Collected Poems Volume 1

Collected Poems Volume 1

£17.99

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Description

Many of you will not know that I write poetry. My first volume, titled ‘Collected Poems’, published by Vision Edition (September 2024), contains over two hundred and thirty poems. I will let others explain the scope of these writings rather than do so myself. However, I would like to say that the publication of this volume, the first of several, I hope, is a dream come true. I love reading and writing poetry and have wished to set aside time to write and publish a book of my work in this media for many years. As described below, everything I write about comes from my experience as a composer, painter, and writer, and I am orientated through these lenses.

I want to thank John Palmer, Director of Vision Edition, for his fantastic support and encouragement throughout this project and my friend Carmel Gardner for inspiring the idea for the collection and initiating the momentum for me to write the bulk of poems featured here. This volume is dedicated to her. And last but by no means least, the insightful and beautifully written preface to the book composed by my dear friend and colleague Sadie Harrison, for which I am much indebted.

John Palmer writes: “Vision Edition are delighted to introduce the inaugural volume in a new series dedicated to the poetic works of composers. We are particularly honoured to launch this series with the poems of Marc Yeats, a composer, painter, and author of remarkable depth and versatility.

Following the success of his recent publication Music, Painting, Landscape and Me, which explored Yeats’s introspective journey through music and painting, this new book, Collected Poems Volume 1, presents a compelling collection of poems written between 2005 and 2024. In these verses, Yeats ventures into uncharted territory, expressing the complex emotions and insights derived from the dynamic energy and delicate fragility of his art. He delves into the profound personal impacts of being a multi-talented artist, offering readers an intimate glimpse into the creative process, so that “we may confront the unsuspecting with the truth of our new reality.”

The poems are rich with reflections, capturing a wide array of experiences and emotions, ranging from memories, loss, and introspection to sensory responses and the inner turmoil of an artist constantly questioning and re-examining his craft. Often revisiting similar themes, Yeats’s poems offer varied perspectives on recurring ideas, exploring them from different angles to deepen his understanding and to engage readers in this ongoing journey of artistic exploration. Intensely focused and profoundly reflective, these works reveal a relentless pursuit of meaning and expression, making Collected Poems Volume 1 a powerful testament to the enduring spirit of creativity.”

And here, I present an extract from the preface to the poetry volume where Sadie Harrison writes:

“Marc Yeats’s poetry is a perfect manifestation of Plato’s statement “Thinking is the talking of the soul with itself”. The poems are his ‘thinking out loud’, allowing us glimpses into a mind that is rigorously questioning, observing, deconstructing and recreating his inner world whilst also exploring the beauty and visceral drama of the outer world. The poems present multi-perspective preoccupations with the ephemerality and heaviness of time, the search for self as an artist and man, a fascination with the unseen and imagined, with process, with sex and the physical body, with human relationships and interrogations into the interplay between music and painting often articulated through detailed observations of the walked landscape. Whilst on the surface some poems have the transparency of watercolour and others the quality of heavy, layered oils, the intense beauty and directness of Yeats’s poetic language unifies them. These are poems which invite us to accompany the poet on walks across chalk downland and hillsides, to converse about everything that makes the world, and him, so extraordinary.”

To order your copy, please follow this link: https://www.visionedition.com/publication/collected-poems/