Lyrics from Arabia Book

Brian Patten was the first poet I found for myself, exploring the world opened up by the Penguin "Mersey Sound" anthology. So re-reading this book, found on a bookshelf in my mum's house, is a way of stepping back 40-some years, which is weird, and remembering how good I thought the book was then. It's no longer the best poetry I've ever read, but there's still poems I like, and 'Song for Last Year's Wife' is good, and Little Johnny hunted down to a swing-park last stand by lolly-pop-sniffing tracker dogs is still a sort of hero.