Collected Poems 1955 - 2015

by John Woolley (m. 1957)

‘John Woolley’s poems have been produces in small batches which is delightful, but unfortunate, because they are poems of great distinction which deserve a much wider audience. John’s poems are formal structures , and his longer poems have a certainty of structure, an architecture which compels confidence. John’s own personality is always present – the observant, loving, amused watcher – but it never calls attention to itself. The poems are firmly rooted in the other, the transient, wonderful pageant which lights up these poems without over burdening them. Enough to say that I have rarely enjoyed making the acquaintance of a contemporary poet more than when I was given the chance to read and re-read these individual, handsome and necessary poems.’

Taken from preface by Peter Scupham