Description
Deliberately and quietly, Gerry Loose has spent years walking the woodlands to observe the poetry of clouds and winds; to cheer the dance of gnats and moths, to listen intently to the musical compositions of wrens and ravens. An Almanac of two different woodlands, one in the Scottish west Highlands and one on Finland’s Baltic coast, it celebrates those woodlands and their human lives. With shipping and fishing reports of monks and witches landed, sea eagles and night walking, the voice of the stars and weather forecasts: the beauty and profundity of oakwoods are revealed in a shifting, precise prose. Rooted in place through habitation and close observation; an exploration of Sunart and Saari through its languages: Gaelic, Finnish, English, birdsong and world news; heaping language onto landscape and excavating what’s been before, An Oakwoods Almanac reinvents a classic form. Gerry Loose is a poet and artist living on the Isle of Bute off the west coast of Scotland. As well as his written books, his work may be found inscribed and permanently located in wild landscapes, botanic gardens, hospital grounds and galleries. His awards include a Creative Scotland Award, a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship, a Kone Foundation Award and a Hermann Kesten Stipendium. His work is translated into many languages and he has held many residencies and performed at literary festivals across the world.
