Secular Eden: Paris Notebooks 1994–2004

by Harry Clifton

The poems in Secular Eden, drawn as they are from notebooks kept over a decade in Paris, are at once the lyrical diary of an Irish poet at a key moment in the life of Europe, and a meditation on sex and marriage, exile and history, the bright and dark of human happiness in a secular age. Harry Clifton’s first book in thirteen years, since Night Train Through the Brenner in 1994, is by far his most ample, achieved and complete statement yet. Winner of the 2008 Irish Times Poetry Now Award.

Genres: Poetry

217 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2007

Reviews

[Alby Blazo]

I'm always impressed by poets that can write longer poems with smooth transitions throughout. Harry Clifton does not disappoint. Secular Eden was a pleasure to read, although my favorite lines from the entire book comes from 'The Scarf': "Surely if I wait / In the one spot, you will find your way back here? / But for how long? And who has the keys / If we lose each other? Who has the house? / Who can find their way back, through time and space?"