These Were the Stories of My People

Signed by the author

These Were the Stories of My People  is Paul's first poetry collection for eight years. It brings together the best of his previous collections, Kidland (2011) and Songs from the Blue River (2018), along with seventeen brand new poems. The story they tell rises from landscapes across the world, from Patagonia to Nevada, Cumbria to Connemara and Galway to Gethsemane. It is a story of connection and loss, of nature and spirit, of searching for truth in the dark thickets of the digital age.

“Kingsnorth’s poems, influenced by DH Lawrence, Robinson Jeffers, RS Thomas, and Ted Hughes… [represent] the lyric poet as true witness … This voice is convincing; Kingsnorth’s is a unified sensibility, alert to beauty, immersed in particularity.”

The Irish Times

“Our age has grown unaccustomed to poetry inhabiting anything but past or present. Exiled largely to the now, the visionary poet must watch on as novelist and film-maker stride confidently, if not authoritatively, into our possible futures. This poetic wariness serves us ill, especially when someone like Kingsnorth arrives with snow on his shoulders and embers in his gut. There’s a plainness of speech here, a seriousness, a raw first-handedness in intent, that insists on the conclusion that this particular gazer had to grind his crystal ball himself.”

Mario Petrucci