As It Must - Gale Burns

Gale Burns' second full collection moves with quiet power between the personal, the family and the social. Whether set close to home or in shifting landscapes, these poems face the challenges of living in these uncertain times and meet characters-ordinary and extreme-who cross our paths.

Burns' lyricism rests on a subtle structural intelligence. Drawing on a lifetime of human encounter, he writes to make sense of what we have built, broken, and inherited. With understated skill, and sometimes humour, he guides the reader through moments of tenderness, unease, and revelation.

As the final poem of the collection, called Fallowfield, declares: Life goes on. As it must.