Robin Lindsay Wilson's is a distinctive style — the hallmark short lines that turn with dexterity into a single, often unpunctuated, sentence running through a whole poem. He pushes this style hard in this third collection, finding an assured and beguiling voice. Shrewd and sharp-sighted, this intelligent writing offers alternative perspectives throughout these wry, layered poems. Always inventive, Backstage in Paradise is another highly accomplished collection.
Here we have poems that in their own selves sing…
Backstage in Paradise … is about life as lived, the thoughts behind thoughts; about the near painful self-delusions necessary to contemporary life … [The] Story Tellers, written for Otto Dix, should be compulsory reading for all those who go by 'accepted fact' and 'certainties'. A collection that looks beyond.
Sam Smith, The Journal
Torturer
crooked blasts of light
were stapled helplessly
to the corridor wall
the torturer blinked
loosened his top button
broke into a whistle
undid his Topshop tie
draped it over his shoulder
and on his way to lunch
through the swing doors
recognised a merciful God
lighting his long stride
to the Chef's Special
Author Biography