The Iconostasis of Anxiety by W. N. Herbert
W.N. Herbert’s new pamphlet illustrates his ongoing fascination with language, register, image, and the power of belief systems to engage the reader in some serious philosophical questions – not necessarily in a serious fashion. It also continues the poet’s method of starting with a structure, then disrupting or disturbing it. In Greek Orthodoxy, the iconostasis is a screen of icons which separates the nave from the holy of holies. Instead of icons, the poet has developed a series of surreal collages sparked in part by his encounters with rustic and ruined chapels on the island of Crete. The accompanying poems discuss existential questions with a host of saints, sinners, and the Holy Trinity, sometimes using the poet’s native Dundonian dialect to keep us all grounded. Image and text complement each other to produce a powerful, pleasing and inventive encounter with the sublime from a multi-talented poet and artist.
W.N. Herbert was born in Dundee and usually lives in North Shields, from where he pines for Emprosneros, a small village in Crete. He has published nine volumes of poetry, most often with Bloodaxe, and five pamphlets, including Murder Bear (Donut Press, 2013), which won a Saboteur Award. His work has been shortlisted for the Eliot, the Saltire, and the Forward, and has gained four PBS Recommendations and three Scottish Arts Council Awards, plus a Cholmondeley Prize. He was first Wordsworth Fellow at Grasmere and first Dundee Makar, (city laureate). He is Emeritus Professor of Poetry and Creative Writing at Newcastle University, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. His Unselected Poems appeared from Smokestack Books in 2024.
MEMBERS ENJOY 25% OFF ALL POETRY BOOKS
Join the Poetry Book Society for 25% off all books
Join the Poetry Book Society for 25% off all books