"The Year's Afternoon" by Douglas Dunn (Faber, 2000)

There are poems from The North, Poetry Ireland, Poetry Review, TLS, etc. The Year's Afternoon (the title poem) is long, including -

This is my time, my possessive, opulent Freedom in free-fall from salaried routines, Intrusions, the boundaryless tedium. ... For three hours without history or thirst Time is my own unpurchased and intimate Republic of the cool wind and blue sea. (p.3)

Here are extracts from other poems

Self-sacrificial 'Soldier' Oates lies there still sinking down the ice-cap draped in breath That turned to crystals when he welcomed death. He's shrouded in refrigerated prayer. (p.15)

Night after night, trying each umpteenth Muse For suitability, a Scots accord Between my accent and a verbal bruise Inflicted on each cadenced English word In an attempt to write the way I spoke Reduced your protégé to an Inglis joke (p.27)

Older, and no wiser, I sit in the sun With understanding That's always on the edge Nearing its conclusions, Always getting closer But never reaching What I want to know (p.52)

I couldn't finish his short story collection, and I struggled to get through this. Surely it didn't need to be 81 pages long. Poems like "A Complete Stranger" don't interest me - tired subject matter, staid execution. I liked "Woodnotes" though.