Groundswell: New and Selected Poems draws on all of the previous collections of one of Irish poetry’s most distinctive and compelling voices. The selection is introduced by Theo Dorgan. Patrick Deeley’s imaginative strength springs from his childhood in the west of Ireland, a life close to and involved with nature. But this is no simplistic nature poetry, the poems are rich - as is the soil - with contradictions, growth and failure, life and death, beauty and horror. If Deeley stoops to decipher the scripture of the wood he is yet aware that even the human is fragile and will pass back into that soil. The forms of the poems echo this watchful care, their stanzas shaped, their language poised and cautious. This volume of new and selected poems is a rich and a rigorous achievement. -John F. Deane Though a number of Irish poets have written about the great changes in Ireland during the last ten to fifteen years, none have done it as beautifully, as potently as Deeley. -Contrary (USA)