'Paul Hetherington's long prose poem Ikaros crafts from the myth of the same name, a unique inspiration and imagination spanning multiple layers of time and consciousness, incorporating memory and dreamscapes into an exceptionally potent exploration of a journey through to self-awareness. Central to the myth of Ikaros and to this collection is the relationship between father and son portrayed by Hetherington with exquisite honesty and tenderness, at once explorative and elegiac. His vision's complexity is expressed in clear, honed language, its fresh imagery enabling a rare and compassionate depth of insight. This is a painterly, highly visual and visceral work with compelling underlying cadences and rhythms. Hetherington gifts the reader with "a necklace of words; utterances like waves and beach-tossed stones" and a telling capacity to listen closely and to see clearly.' (Publication summary)
'If the prose poem keeps its time across the sentence rather than the line, it also distinguishes itself from narrative as the lyric does, by sequestering narrative, with its relentless cause-and-effect motion, to a space outside the poem itself. Cannily situating the poems of Íkaros within the overarching context of a story so familiar most children know it, Paul Hetherington relieves himself of any obligation to provide narrative, and so allows himself to cast each poetic gesture adrift on lyric time, where the poems can operate in the realm of pure voice.' (Publication summary)
'If the prose poem keeps its time across the sentence rather than the line, it also distinguishes itself from narrative as the lyric does, by sequestering narrative, with its relentless cause-and-effect motion, to a space outside the poem itself. Cannily situating the poems of Íkaros within the overarching context of a story so familiar most children know it, Paul Hetherington relieves himself of any obligation to provide narrative, and so allows himself to cast each poetic gesture adrift on lyric time, where the poems can operate in the realm of pure voice.' (Publication summary)
