Best Selling Books by Les Murray

Presents a collection of poems, written since 1965, that the author considers to be his best work.

"A new selection from Les Murray, Australia''s finest poet"--

The centerpiece of this collection of poems is "Presence," a sequence of forty "translations from the natural world" about a variety of settings and their amazing denizens. Lyre birds, honeycombs, sea lions, possums, all act as spurs for Murray''s protean talent for description and imitation. "Even with a score of volumes and a king''s ransom of literary honors to his credit, Australian poet Murray refuses to take words for granted. His latest collection is a forceful blend of formalism and experimentation, a test of imagination, ear, and tongue for both poet and reader." - Library Journal

A new collection of poems from Les Murray that renews and transforms the contemporary world through language In Waiting for the Past, Les Murray employs his molten sense of language to renew and transform our experience of the world. With quicksilver verse, he conjures his rural past, the life of the poor dairy boy in Australia, as he simultaneously feels the steady tug of aging, of time pulling him back to the present. Here, syntax, sense, and sound combine with such acrobatic grace that his poems render the familiar into the unknown, the unknown into the revelatory. Whether Murray is writing about a boy on a walkabout hiding from grief, a sounding whale “spilling salt rain,” or leaves that “tread on the sky,” the great Australian poet’s sense of wonder, his ear for the everyday, his swiftness of thought, are everywhere in these pages. As Derek Walcott said of Murray’s work, “There is no poetry in the English language now so rooted in its sacredness, so broad-leafed in its pleasures, and yet so intimate and conversational.”

A wonderful new collection by a wizard of contemporary poetry Everything widens with distance, in this perspective. The dog''s paws, trotting, rotate his end of infinity and dam water feels a shiver few willow drapes share. Bright leaks through their wigwam re-purple the skinny beans then rapidly the light tops treetops and is shortened into a day. Everywhere stands pat beside its shadow for the great bald radiance never seen in dreams. -from "Aurora Prone" In July 1996, the Australian press reported that after three weeks in a coma, the country''s greatest poet, Les Murray, was again "conscious and verbal." Shortly thereafter, Murray resumed his work in words, and over the next four years he wrote these sixty-five poems, which, in their different ways, literally or sensually, replay that dreamy announcement of the perpetually waking world. Conscious and Verbal is one of the legendary poet''s richest, fullest, and most imaginative books to date.

From his life’s work so far, spanning more than four decades, Les Murray has selected these 100 poems, his personal best. Including classics such as ''The Broad Bean Sermon'', ''An Absolutely Ordinary Rainbow'' and ''The Dream of Wearing Shorts Forever'', this elegant hardback is guaranteed to delight Murray fans and introduce new readers to his work. This is a wonderful gift, and a treasure trove of the best poems ever written in Australia. ‘No poet has ever travelled like this, whether in reality or simply in the mind ... Seeing the shape or hearing the sound of one thing in another, he finds forms’ —Clive James ‘He is, quite simply, the one by whom the language lives.’ —Joseph Brodsky ‘There is no poetry in the English language now so rooted in its sacredness, so broadleafed in its pleasures and yet so intimate and conversational.’ —Derek Walcott ‘An unequivocal national treasure’ —Melbourne Review ‘An outstanding collection.’ —Canberra Times ‘This is Murray as he sees himself: the icon in the mirror, not on the stage.’ —Australian Les Murray lives in Bunyah, near Taree in New South Wales. He has published some thirty books. His work is studied in schools and universities around Australia and has been translated into several foreign languages.

Selected Poems is the latest, completely up - to - date collection of Les Murray''s poetry. It comprises what Murray himself considers his most successfully realised poems, drawn from all his collections up to and including The Biplane Houses but not including his two verse novels. It is the first port of call for anyone wanting to experience the poetry of Les Murray, whether it be those who have always loved his work or those wanting an introduction to Australia''s greatest poet. It is a distillation of Murray''s best work and an ideal introduction.

This is Les Murray''s first new volume of poems since Poems the Size of Photographs in 2002. In it we find Murray at his nearmiraculous best. The collection—named for a kind of house distinctive to Murray''s native Australia—exhibits both his unfailing grace as a writer and his ability to write in any voice, style, or genre: there are story poems, puns extended to poem length, history—and myths in miniature, aphoristic fragments, and domestic portraits. As ever, Murray''s evocation of the natural world is unparalleled in its inventiveness and virtuosity. The Biplane Houses is ardent, eloquent, enchanting poetry.

Brief, that place in the year when a blossoming pear tree with its sweet laundered scent reinhabits wooden roads that arch and diverge up into electronic snow city. --"Brief, That Place in the Year" In Poems The Size of Photographs, Les Murray deftly maneuvers through familiar themes--the local terrain of the Australian people, politics, and landscape, as well as the terrain that is harder to render tangible: history, myth, and symbol. As if trying to find the fissure through which to crack open his subject matter, Murray has sharpened his form to an ideogrammatic brevity. Each snapshot-like poem in this volume develops before the reader''s very eyes, as the initially observed object or moment in time changes meaning and grows in complexity and resonance line by line.

"Les Murray has earned his reputation not only as one of Australia''s finest writers but as one of the most engaging poets writing in English today." -Kate Kellaway, The Observer (London) Taller When Prone is Les Murray''s first volume of new poems since The Biplane Houses, published in 2007. These poems combine a mastery of form with a matchless ear for the Australian vernacular. Many evoke rural life in Australia and elsewhere-its rhythms and rituals, the natural world, the landscape and the people who have shaped it. There are traveler''s tales, elegies, meditative fragments, and satirical sketches. Above all, there is Murray''s astonishing versatility, on display here at its exhilarating best.

The final collection of poems by the great Australian poet Les Murray, Continuous Creation We bring nothing into this world except our gradual ability to create it, out of all that vanishes and all that will outlast us. In Continuous Creation, the final collection from Les Murray, the preeminent poet of modern Australia recalls moments from his youth and wryly observes the changing world, moving back and forth through time and history with characteristic curiosity and an ever-fresh commitment to capturing the rhythms of life in verse. This collection displays Murray’s miraculous ability to reinvent language in order to plant his and our reality on the page, whether he writes about the Australian landscape (“Kangaroo sleeping / ahead on the road turns out / to be twigs and leaves”) or unsold books sitting in department stores. Continuous Creation demonstrates, once more, that Murray was one of the great poets of the English language. As Joseph Brodsky said, he was, “quite simply, the one by whom the language lives.”

In this collection of poems, farmers, fathers, poverty-stricken pioneers, and people blackened by the grist of the sugar mills are exposed to the blazing midday sun of Murray''s linguistic powers. Richly inventive, tenderly perceptive, and fiercely honest, these poems surprise and bare the human in all of us.

A novel in verse on the adventures of a German-Australian sailor early this century, eg. "The first I heard that the War had really come / was a black-faced officer with a target and a church / on his cap, directing sailors to rip / our decks up, for the coal below. / I turned out of my hammock / to fight them--and our bos''un chucked me a shovel: / We''re coaling that battlecruiser. / There! The English are after her!" By an Australian writer.

Part history, part critique, all commentary, this book shares what it is about football that makes it so irresistible. In his distinctive voice and fired with his unique passion, The World (game) According to Les Murray tells the story of the truly global game of football: where it sprang from, why it mutated and migrated, and how Australia, too, is being conquered. Meet the amazing players who have embodied the perfection – and imperfections – of the beautiful game. Read how world events have been played out on the sporting stage of World Cups. It’s Les Murray’s take on the world’s favourite game, mixing historical fact with opinion as he attempts to describe why football touches the heart, why footballers are idolized, how the World Cup is the greatest event in the world. Les Murray has been a besotted fan of football for most of his life. If you’re one of the similarly stricken, this book is for you. Les Murray has been the face and voice of football in Australia for more than 30 years. A prominent commentator and SBS presenter, he has been credited with championing the game’s monumental rise in popularity. He was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2006, and is a member of the FIFA ethics committee.

With World Cup madness set to take hold, Les Murray''sWorld Football Challenge is an opportunity for old andnew fans of the sport to brush up on the finer points offootball. The World Football Challenge Guide Bookcontains all the must have stats and facts for the 2006World Cup, including the Rules of the Game and a briefhistory of World ......