Michael Grieve studied at the Universities of St Andrews and Cambridge, before being lured back to his native Fife to work as a bookseller.
This is a one-poem publication, a narrative in the best tradition of narrative poets such as Robert Browning, and perhaps a bit of a novelty in the 21st century.
It is one of two ‘story-poem’ pamphlets, published at the same time (the other one is Granny Garbage by Joan Lennon). Each of these verse narratives is intriguing, beguiling, and makes a great gift—even for those whose first love isn’t poetry.
Here's a taste of Luck (copies of which, sorry, we have now sold out):
If you take a pack of cards and shuffle it
the chances of that deck having ever been
in the exact order that it’s in
are 1 in 52 x 51
x 50 all the way to 1. Read it
52 factorial, 52 bang,
52 shriek. It’s almost certain
no deck has ever been identical
to the newly shuffled World-First in your hand.
So, sick of sickening myself with pills
and abstinence from winning, waiting,
I fished a pack of cards from out the drawer,
shuffled them and turned them face down on the floor.