Poetry
Category: Individual Collections, Poetry
Number of pages: 64
ISBN: 9781781724552
Publication date: July 5, 2018
Price: £9.99
‘Bold and striking’ – Poetry Book Society
‘Cogan’s startling new collection is rooted firmly in the finest of the English poetry tradition, connecting us back to the dynamic dreamtime of nature and magic. In Bragr, the poems traverse the vast mindscape of myth, weaving the warp and weft of folklore and fable into re-imagined modern forms, which are immediate to the imagination and resonant with a prescient power. This is poetry of the first order.’ – Adam Wyeth
Whether it’s myth intended to explain the constellations, the secret of eternal life, or the bloodthirsty tale of the mead of poetry, Ross Cogan’s collection Bragr (meaning ‘poetry’ in Old Norse) is a reimagining of Norse mythology for our times. In particular, the collection focuses on environmental concerns. The earth’s incredible beauty seems all the more fragile in the face of habitat loss and global warming.
The first part – ‘The Beginning’ – interweaves themes from the Norse creation myths with our own, human, preoccupations. The opening poem mirrors the stately procession of creation which, like in the Biblical Genesis, seems to arrive trailing both glory and the seeds of its own (human) destruction. Included in this part are beautiful poems about trees, about wood grain, about the lovely Idun, about seascapes and starscapes, the playgrounds of the gods.
Part two – ‘Bestiary’ – is a celebration, and also a lament, for the richness of animal life that the world is losing. Here we find poems, frequently wonderfully complex yet compact sonnets about: toads, bees, snakes, goats, rats, ducks, seagulls and hares.
Part three reinterprets the ‘Twilight of the Gods’ and the last battle of Ragnarök when natural disasters and floods encompass the earth. Later from the darkness comes a new cycle of death and life. Although mystical elements feature throughout the collection, the author’s aim is also an immediate, down-to-earth view of the threats we face today from global warming, the depletion of the Earth’s resources and loss of biodiversity.
Myths have survived for so long because they say important things about what it means to be human. People have reinterpreted them from generation to generation, developing and adding to them as their worlds have evolved. I hope these poems form a small link in this chain.– Ross Cogan
Ross Cogan
Ross Cogan studied philosophy, gaining a PhD from Bristol University and, in 1999, received a Gregory Award from the Society of Authors. He has published two collections, Stalin’s Desk (2005) and The Book I Never Wrote (2012) with Oversteps Books and his verse play Achyncourt was performed at several literary festivals and broadcast on radio in December 2015. Ross now works as a freelance writer/editor, as well as being Creative Director of the Cheltenham Poetry Festival and an Associate Tutor at Cardiff Metropolitan University. He has won first place in The Exeter Prize, The Staple Open Poetry Competition, The Frogmore Poetry Prize, The Crabbe Memorial Prize, and The Cannon Poets Sonnet Competition and second prize in the Troubadour International Poetry Competition. His poetry has appeared in numerous magazines, including PN Review, Poetry London, The Rialto, New Welsh Review, Stand, Acumen, Agenda, Envoi, The Frogmore Papers, The Swansea Review, The Interpreter’s House, Orbis, Oxford Poetry and Smiths Knoll. Ross takes a keen interest in environmental matters and is semi-self-sufficient, growing most of his own vegetables, raising goats, ducks and chickens, and brewing his own mead.
