The Empire of Forgetting by John Burnside
Poetry Book Society Recommendation Autumn 2025
Hardback of heartbreaking poignancy and laugh-out-loud

of heartbreaking poignancy and laugh-out-loud humour

Even poetry and poetics itself becomes a subject of scrutiny

which often operate as mutually reinforcing vectors

Bloomsbury Review

The book is about my reserve in northern Alberta

The Empire of Forgetting by John Burnside<br><b>Poetry Book Society Recommendation Autumn 2025</b><br> Hardback of heartbreaking poignancy and laugh-out-loudJohn Burnside's last collection of new poems gathers around a single theme "mortality "and draws on his faltering health and earlier glances with death, creating a powerfully moving exploration of memory, forgetting and the seven ages. Here, as always, there is a clear eyed curiosity; a sense of wonder at the beleaguered natural world and its endless mutability "its hidden beauty, often suddenly disclosed "and a deep faith in its old gods. Burnside