In
Terror, Toby Martinez de las Rivas leads us on a high-wire act in pursuit of a new kind of communication. By turns political, social, theological, historical and personal, the poems in this debut collection work closely with the reader, asking questions of us and encouraging us never to settle for inadequate answers. Toby Martinez de las Rivas writes with a flare and a rigour associated with some of his guiding lights: Christopher Smart, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Barry Mac Sweeney, Geoffrey Hill. Seeking a language which might console us, a language with which we might commune in our most intimate and terrifying moments – be these in love, in doubt, in a prayer for an unborn child, or an exploration of the kind of world we might wish to live in –
Terror is a thrilling and powerful debut.