EXCLUSIVE: 4 Poems from Alan Buckley's forthcoming 'Still'

I've known and admired the work of Alan Buckley for a long time, and I'm delighted to be able to publish four poems here, exclusively on my blog, from his forthcoming collection Still (Blue Diode Press, 10 July 2025). Read them below, and if you live in or around Oxford you can sign up here to attend the book's launch on Friday 25th July, at 7.30pm in the Community Works.

The poems below are douzaines which were written during the Covid lockdowns. I met up with Alan recently and he took me on a walk along the route through the Lye Valley in Oxford which inspired these poems. It was a privilege to be shown the route by the poet as he talked to me about his process and how the project came together. Below are four poems from the collection written in a form he dubs 'douzaines' which are essentially 12 line poems composed of 6 couplets with each line seven syllables long. It's a fascinating form which he mentions 'are a visual representation of that [lockdown] experience.' In the spirit of the poet's project, I'll condense my reflections on these poems into three words: distilled; vivid; resonant.

You can hear Alan talk about his work here on the Oxford Brookes Poetry Podcast.

You can buy Still here.

Here's a selection of four poems from Alan's collection: