We Lost the Birds

In this exciting new pamphlet, Ben Verinder takes flight to survey the human landscape.

At times sad and strange, at others darkly funny, these poems are marked by a deft use of language, surprising conceits, an elegant music and a riot of birdlife.

Throughout many of the poems there is a sense of humans and birds uneasily sharing the same space and while this work laments both landscape and loved ones, it opens out into broader panoramas - a Yorkshire maggot farm, the smallest distillery in Scotland, a warehouse full of superannuated waxworks and an international crying competition.

This is precise, inventive, well-executed work.