Light Airs confirms Mick Evans as an exceptional poet whose linguistic dexterity in making every phrase work on multiple levels is matched by his impressive range of references. Whether the metaphors are of love or change, hubris or the banality of evil, the control and voice is always unerring, the precision always honed and intelligent. There are poems here that will chill and unsettle the reader and poems of exquisite tenderness. What unites them is there is never a complacent, sentimental or glib word. These are poems of depth and passion threaded with humane humour. Pushing at the boundaries of form, Light Airs is an inventive, honest and distinctive collection that will resonate long after reading.
Mick Evans grew up in rural Hertfordshire. He read English at Oxford, where he gained a Violet Vaughan Morgan Prize. He pursued a career in teaching in Kent, Cheshire, and finally Carmarthenshire. The move to Wales was prompted by the desire to re-establish the family's Welsh roots. Surrounded by landscapes steeped in myth and the dramatic scenery of the Black Mountains and Towy Valley, the tensions of urban and natural worlds are a constant source of inspiration.A founder member of the Dinefwr Poets group, he is published in a number of anthologies, a runner up in the Cinnamon single poem competition, and winner of the Welsh Poetry Competition. His debut collection, Burlesque, was published by Cinnamon Press in 2019