By the winner of the 2013 T S Eliot Prize and the 1990 Patrick Kavanagh Award for Poetry. This book of poems is organized around the theme of the journey: from communism to spiritual affirmation; from life in Ireland to life abroad, and return; and from the security of given structures to independence and security in the self.

This book of poems is organized around the theme of the journey: from communism to spiritual affirmation; from life in Ireland to life abroad, and return; and from the security of given structures - the family in particular--to independence and security in the self. Poems of childhood and communist upbringing open the collection. There are poems about death; about love, its loss and the disorientation that ensues; and a number which deal with angels and the implications of religious faith.