Exploring the paradoxes of contemporary life through the lens of an acclaimed Irish poet

In The Readiness, Alan Gillis – one of the most admired Irish poets of his generation – addresses some of the most pressing concerns of our age: how can we live at the centre of our contemporary paradox, disconnected and hyper-connected as we are? A poet of thresholds and crossings, Gillis finds his answers in the suburbs and edgelands, at the hesitation before the doorstep or the gate.

These poems form a series of bad dreams and clear visions that speak to the chaos and fragility of both self and society: the childhood innocence that persists into the resignation of adulthood; the beauty of nature in an age of environmental ruin; the terrible isolation of contemporary life – and the live-streamed, advert-laden over-wiring that springs from its digital commons. With formal confidence, dry wit and often astonishing lyricism, Gillis explores the meaning at the heart of our human contradictions, marking him as one of the most individual and vital poetic voices now at work.