Black Sun

by Toby Martínez de las Rivas

Toby Martinez de las Rivas is regarded as one of the most distinctive voices to have emerged in recent times; to some, a modern-day William Blake. The Guardian described Terror, his first book, as 'visionary' and 'exciting', the New Statesman as 'remarkable', and all combined to praise its brave and lucid intensity. Black Sun is a sequel of poise and clarity that is, if anything, more open and accessible than its predecessor. Beginning where Terror left off, it pursues that book's fascination with history and with theology, with the physical body and the body of the State, with preservation and redemption.

Black Sun confronts the dark dreams and hidden powers of this world, and, through the poet's attentive watching and wondering, offers its readers a way 'to know - & still to resist a last despair'.

'A lucid and spontaneous lyricism . . . how unlike most of his contemporaries Martinez de las Rivas seems to be.' New Statesman

Genres: Poetry

72 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2018

About the author

Toby Martínez de las Rivas (b. 1978) grew up in Somerset, England, before moving to the North East to study and work as an archaeologist. His collections are Terror (2014) and Black Sun (2018). He has won various awards, and currently lives in Córdoba, Spain.

Reviews

[Justin Evans]

Never have I been happier to be distant from the self-righteous, meaningless 'conversation' that is the contemporary poetry 'scene.' This book, which spawned semi-meaningless cris de coeur from people who have absolutely no intellectual credibility whatsoever, is very good. I don't read much poetry, because it's all either virtue-signalling, chamomile tea, or failed experimentation. This one is like Geoffrey Hill, if Hill had cared a bit more about people having any idea what he was talking about: sounds great, pretty smart, about something in the world.

[Juliano]

Finally had the chance to read Toby Martinez de las Rivas’ second collection of poetry, ‘Black Sun’. I was a huge fan of his first, ‘Terror’, and had huge expectations which were met in abundance. I’m not sure I loved it as much as ‘Terror’ but the collection is packed, cover-to-cover, with some of the best contemporary poetry on often; it struck me that many of the poems consider “houses” of different kinds: homes, the body as life-house, the church as god-house, the sun as the home of both creation and destruction. And the same theological concerns that permeated ‘Terror’ can be found her in abundance, especially in the more formally experimental poems - many of which are visually striking and endlessly haunting.

[Al Terry]

Dark, mysterious and complex. Toby Martinez de las Rivas is a poets poet.

[Fnaught]

I'm noticing now that Faber and Faber is just chockful of these "very well read poets" who are deeply, and annoyingly unafraid of being pretentious. This means -in almost every case- that they come up with some fabulous lines, here and there, but that there is really nothing to bind everything together apart from some nebulous, half-understood theme or concept: in this case, that's the Black Sun.
But this is what you get when your poets want nothing to do with the Volk -for shame! For shame that an esoteric symbol should have another meaning.
-Why don't you get down in the dirt, eh Toby? Ain't the Decline of the West a decent subject for poetry?
[Rivas: I would rather joke the black sun is a Sodomite anus.]
-Well, you do you, girlie!

[Samuel]

Reading Forward Prize 2018 Shortlist.

[Joel Robert]

the right step in the wrong direction

[Eleanor Fithen]

At points very beautiful and original, at others a little self conscious.