The same again, the old bell says -- the roofs, the pillowed heads, the dreams, the tides -- the same but not the same, this winter morning here.

In his beautifully conceived, meticulously assembled new collection Michael Coady, laureate of the home place, ruminates on and records the traces let behind by our lives. From the 'rhapsody of now' through 'words of love and grief,/the earth's embrace, it's constancy' Going by Water celebrates enduring values and the mysterious triumphs of ordinary experience and everyday ritual. It recounts inherited as well as overheard and re-imagined stories. It ranges from the river traditions of his native town to take in a new Ireland and the newfound locales of Paris and beyond with their communities of the living and dead. While it sounds elegiac notes it pulses to the beat of music as a portal to transcendence.

Symphonic in its orchestration, integrating poetry, prose narratives and the author's photography, Going by Water elicits from its catchment a universal human measure. With All Souls and One Another it forms a trilogy unique in our literature.

Format: Paperback
Year published: 2009
Pages: 165
Sub-genre: Photography; poetry
Imprint: The Gallery Press