Originally from Merseyside, Alan Buckley moved to Oxford in the 1980s to study English Literature and has lived there ever since. His tall-lighthouse publication, Shiver, was the PBS pamphlet choice for summer 2009.
In The Long Haul, he offers a second collection of exceptional range. This is a poet who knows precisely what he’s about.
He has that rare lightness of touch that comes only from tried and tested expertise. It makes reading him a delight.
Unsurprisingly, the pamphlet sold out quickly in 2016 but has now, thanks to popular request, been reprinted.
FLAME
Use matches sparingly
—instruction on front of matchbox
Not meanness or thrift
but wisdom; respect
for each small torch
that’s kept in there. Lover,
the same is true for words.
I bring you no fireworks.
A room is never so dark
that it needs more
than one slim burst
of sulphur to show
the mirror hung on its wall,
the way to its door.
And lovers know too
how even a single
flame might raise
a scar that time can’t heal.
So come, stand next to me;
let’s flip this little box.
Strike softly away from body.
See how it urges us.