The Man who Made Up Trees by Michael Greavy

 

The Man who Made Up Trees is a pamphlet concerned with the profound absurdities by which we tally our daily toil. Here kebabs and Odysseus, Bangkok and Galway Bay, black cats and Bach dance together, held lightly and beautifully by Greavy’s attention to, and elevation of, sound. One cannot help but be continuously delighted here.

—–– Aoife Lyall

This pamphlet stood out from all others because everything gave way to sound – and aren’t your poems all the better for it. I did not read the poems so much as hear them. The collection felt like having a seat in the middle of an orchestra or a ceilidh band. There was something so joyful about this abandon to words and their tunefulness. I was captivated from the start, and I am so delighted to give this recognition to something so different. You have my very warmest congratulations.

—-– Niall Campbell

 

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Buy a copy (Rest of World) for £11: here 

 

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Thinking you like me more as a swing,
I hang in the park, tick after dark,
sidle the wind waiting

for you to sit on me. To wish you close
I turn into coins, bide time
with your fingers, slip in your purse,

spend your hand for bread and pears.

———–From “Thinking You Like Me,” The Man who Made Up Trees 

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Michael Greavy was born in Manchester. After reading Chemistry at LJMU he turned to teaching. His poems have appeared widely in magazines and have been shortlisted for awards including the Bridport Prize. His pamphlet The Boy Who Kept Bees was highly commended in the Poetry Business Pamphlet Competition. He lives close to the West Yorkshire border.

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