Against Perfection

This book is a selection from Richard Burns's poems until 1999, chosen and designed by Aude Gotto, editor of The King of Hearts, a small press in Norwich.

Aude Gotto writes: 'This collection reflects the diversity of Richard Burns' work. With Jewish, English, East European and Mediterranean connection he is truly a European poet who integrates the wealth and paradoxes of his origins in  a unique personal voice.  He is also a master of his craft, a poet in the Greek sense of the word, whose stylistic versatility brilliantly serves the diversity of his inpsiration: he can speak with adelicately poised tenderness or a vigorous and passionate vitality. The style moves between a luxuriance of metaphors and transparent simplicity; the forms vary widely from the discpline of the sonnet or villanelle to the open-endedness of the "verse paragraph". His is a fully contemporaqry voice which challenges trends and fashions, never sheltering behind contrived obscurity or mind gymnastics.

'In this book the reader will discover courage, compassion and hope: a hope beyond optimisim and illusions, a compassion strip[ed of sentimentality and a courage which is the stubborn will to persevere.

'Against Perfection is a challenge to find within ourselves a responseto a poet whose reason takes its cue from the heart.'

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