The poems in Owen Lowery's first collection speak in a range of voices offer glimpses into many lives & many worlds At the same time we hear in all of them Lowery's own voice Incorporating elements from English Welsh Hebrew Arabic Japanese & Italian poetic traditions he develops form deftly giving his work a beautiful risky movement & musicality Many of his poems pay tribute to poets writing in the face of war he enters the worlds of Paul Celan Keith Douglas Alun Lewis Edward Thomas &
- in a powerful sequence based on IF THIS IS A MAN
- Primo Levi Other poems are more directly personal the poet's confessions both wry & tender ' Your trademark switching the light on from the bottom of the stairs wakes the open secret of his thank you prayer' The poet was a British Judo champion but suffered a spinal injury in 1987 as a result of which he is now a ventilator-dependent C2-level tetraplegic With OTHERWISE UNCHANGED Owen Lowery embarks on a momentous & moving journey