Publication: distillate03

distillate03 (Apparent, 2024) is now in print.

Apparent: https://apparentbooks.com/

distillate03 is available at Amazon

The third selection of Michael Ayres’ work originally posted online under the moniker “hypergram”, distillate03 displays the writer’s distinctive style and aesthetic. Calm, elegant poetry, possessing a complex architecture, the writing is often informed with a tenderness and humanity that belie the poems’ intensely philosophical nature.

Cover image | DISTILLERY form swatch 3, Michael Ayres

Publication | Racetrack not on raceday

Racetrack not on raceday (Apparent, 2021) is now in print.

Apparent: https://apparentbooks.com/

Racetrack not on raceday is available at Amazon

Racetrack not on raceday is the eighth collection of poems by Michael Ayres. Divided into two parts (the fixated melancholy of Wandering alone for thousands of years, followed by the more playful, Mannerist Delirium rented room) the book is a study in narrative and mood.

Cover image | Detail of Fisherman’s Cottage, 1906, by Harald Oscar Sohlberg. The Art Institute of Chicago.

Publication | Static

Static (Apparent, 2021) is now in print.

Apparent: https://apparentbooks.com/

It follows six earlier books: Poems, 1987–1992 (Odyssey Poets, 1994), a.m. (Salt Publishing, 2003), Kinetic (Shearsman Books, 2007), distillate01 (Apparent, 2020), sentence (Apparent, 2021) and Racetrack not on raceday (Apparent, 2021)

Static is available at Amazon

Static is Michael Ayres’ seventh collection. Unavailable in print until now, its publication allows the book to take its place alongside the contemporaneous Kinetic (Shearsman, 2007), with which it shares a similar aesthetic. Static is a study in instance and fragmentation, and the poetry, with its sketch-like, skeletal style, explores states of tension, paralysis and unease.

Cover image | Detail of E-12: English Drawing Room of the Georgian Period, c. 1800, (c. 1937), by Mrs. James Ward Thorne. The Art Institute of Chicago.