Troy Town

'The past is startled into a sudden eloquence'. Matt Merritt's poems are startling. Their voice is quiet, their rhymes discreet, But a loch reveals a submarine; a sky, a sudden bird; a landscape, love.

This book's familiars are birds, about which Matt Merritt writes beautifully.

The poems are also brushed by the wings of loss, lit by jokes, eloquent with hope.

Sudden rain now. Liquid miles, but hours yet to harden into day. The way it always is. Remember this. This work is memorable for the best reasons. Without hectoring, it reminds us of what we know. Irresistibly, it opens new horizons. The reader does not want a poem to end, but when it must, the reward is insight, the exact observation which is love. "Troy Town" is humorous, wise, and clear-eyed. These are poems for grown-ups, to which a reader will return, with pleasure and surprise, again and again.