Oracle Bones

by James Harpur

An Irish monk watching the Black Death edging towards him; a priest at Delphi lamenting the passing of an era; an Assyrian extispicist receiving more inspiration than is good for him - these are some of the voices in James Harpur's third collection. Drawing on legend, myth and sacred traditions, his poems explore universal forces - seen and unseen, personal and cosmic - shaping people's destinies, and the signs by which their patterns are revealed. These central issues coalesce in `Dies Irae', a long poem in which a Dark Age churchman tries to reconcile his mission to save souls in a sinking world with his own sickness, both physical and spiritual.

96 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2001

About the author

James Harpur has had four poetry collections published by Anvil Press: A Vision of Comets (1993), The Monk’s Dream (1996), Oracle Bones (2001) and The Dark Age (2007). Anvil have also published his Fortune’s Prisoner, a translation of the poems of Boethius. In addition, he has published a sequence of religious poems called The Gospel of Joseph of Arimathea (Wild Goose, 2008). His prose publications include Love Burning in the Soul (Shambhala, 2005), an introduction to the Christian mystics.

After studying Classics and English at university, he taught English on the island of Crete then worked as a lexicographer. He is now a freelance writer.

James has won a number of prizes for his poetry, including the 1995 British National Poetry Competition. He has received various awards and bursaries, such as from Cork Arts, the Eric Gregory Trust, the Society of Authors, the Arts Council (UK), and the Hawthornden Foundation. His poems have been broadcast on national and local radio in Ireland and the UK and have appeared in various anthologies. These include Staying Alive (Bloodaxe, 2002), Ireland’s Love Poems (Kyle Cathie, 2000), The New Exeter Book of Riddles (Enitharmon, 2002), The Forward Book of Poetry (Faber, 2001), Voices in the Gallery (Tate Publishing 1986).

He has performed his poetry widely at poetry festivals and venues, including the Triskel Arts Centre (Cork), the Voice Box (London), the ICA (London), and the Irish Writers’ Centre (Dublin). He has held poetry residencies at the Munster Literature Centre in Cork and at Exeter Cathedral in the UK.

He is currently poetry editor of the Temenos Academy Review, a publication founded by the poet and William Blake scholar, Kathleen Raine, and of Southword, one of Ireland’s leading literary journals.

He lives in County Cork, Ireland.