PBS: Jacob Polley

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Jacob Polley
The Brink Picador £7.99

	Many of Jacob Polley’s poems are rooted in domestic and family life and there is a real sense of excitement as he works with this material. His poem ‘A Jar of Honey ’shows how good he can be at finding just the right phrase to release meaning. The natural world also fascinates him and there is a splendid series of poems using fish as their motif. Jacob Polley writes from the North of England, and that, too, adds a resonance to his work. Click here to return to the list of Next Generation Poets

A Jar of Honey

You hold it like a lit bulb,
a pound of light,
and swivel the stunned glow
around the fat glass sides:

it’s the sun, all flesh and no bones
but for the floating knuckle
of honeycomb
attesting to the nature of the struggle.

from The Brink

Biography
Jacob Polley was born in 1975 in Carlisle, Cumbria, where he lives now. He holds an English degree from Lancaster University and an MA in Creative Writing. His poems were originally published in Cumbria County Council pamphlets. He became artist in residence at his local newspaper where he wrote and published a poem a day for three months and later a weekly poem for Cumberland News. He had two poems in Faber’s 1998 publication, First Pressing. In 2002 he won the BBC Radio 4/Arts Council of England ‘First Verse’ Award and an Eric Gregory Award. The Brink is his first collection.