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Matthew Caley -
THE SCENE OF MY FORMER TRIUMPH.

Matthew Caley's debut Thirst [1999] was Nominated for The Forward Prize For Best First Collection and much acclaimed: 'shaped and honed to a mosaic brilliance' ken Smith. 'Stunning invention and remarkable versatility' Sophie Hannah. 'Thirst is a joy - comic, witty, even touchingly poignant' Time Out.

This second collection The Scene Of My Former Triumph extends his patrol across the liminal borders between urban myth and the myth of pastoral escape.

"One tour-de-force is welcome in a collection, there may well be a dozen in this one. Formally outrageous, culturally light-fingered, Matthew Caley's vision and wit make for poems that turn a wondrous, great lamp on the inter-relatedness of all things. In doing this, he aims to stretch English to its full, muscular extension. Caley is a rare beast, an important poet yet to be discovered by his true readership, which is to say everyone. Read this encomium of delights and be glad."
John Stammers

The Smell Of Books

Apparently, opening up a cod-fish
the pseudonymous Charles Yellowplush
found in its maw a duodecime work
by one John Firth-
a treatise on the worth of penitence.

The pong of dissolute authors
can overpower
the nostrils. Avoid risk.
Always wear a smog-mask.
A better policy may be complete avoidance.

Though the febrile reek of dog daisies
can outstink even us,
its 50 Key Contemporary Thinkers idling by a vase
that overpowers.
Don't inhale. Keep your distance.

For some, the relative snuff
of haiku is enough.
Watch out. This can provoke levity,
a minimal Zen-like brevity
or trance.

By comparison, philosophy is smack
or popping all the E's of George Perec.
The amyl-nitrate
Cities Of The Red Night
covertly pleading for temperance.

But my own mien
is inhaling The Song Of Solomon,
like pollen-filled air
or a woman's hair
drenched in myhrr or frankincense.

You follow the wafted spores
through rotating doors
and out into the city - all it's smells
singing in your nostrils:
the stink of love, the smell of books, the recompense.

Matthew Caley
The scene of my former triumph.
Wrecking Ball Press
ISBN 1-903110-29-7