A collection of Michael Longley's greatest poems, spanning an extraordinary career of sixty years as one of the Belfast triumverate, alongside Seamus Heaney and Derek Mahon

'One of the world's greats' IRISH NEWS

'A keeper of the artistic estate, a custodian of griefs and wonders' SEAMUS HEANEY

The title of Michael Longley’s New Selected Poems is taken from his poem ‘Ash Keys’. The wing-shaped, wind-borne seeds of the ash-tree might be an image for poems in search of their readers. This selection, based on thirteen individual collections, represents Longley’s unusual range as a lyric poet.

It shows how his themes, genres and forms have evolved and interlaced since the 1960s. Love, violence, the natural world, art, psychodrama, family, the Great War, the Homeric past and Northern Ireland’s troubled present cohabit in these pages – as do depth, wit and beauty.

'His work is of the level that would be befitting of a Novel Prize for Literature' MICHAEL D HIGGINS

'Michael Longley’s latest lines are just as restless and as promising as his first' Times Literary Supplement

"Michael Longley is a lyric poet with perfect pitch. His formal elegance seems effortless... A master in an old, great tradition" - Times

"This new selection of his [Longley’s] poetry, drawing on his 13 published collections, shows his range and power. He is one of the great poets of landscape, as well as a powerful, pained commentator on Northern Ireland’s troubled history" - Herald

"With Ash Keys we gain access to the past and relive its colour… Now, more than ever, Longley’s work deserves to be widely read and treasured" - Sunday Times

"Michael Longley’s latest lines are just as restless and as promising as his first" - Times Literary Supplement