Untergang

Exploring how humanity is rooted in and linked to everywhere and everything, Batten brought a fresh voice and precise language to his reflective, but ultimately hopeful debut, Transhumance. In Untergang, David Batten moves from the open, cosmic, affirming tone to a sequence that is internally reflective - darker, almost claustrophobic. Whereas his first collection ended on the plateau, in the light, anticipating summer, Untergang starts indoors in the dark of a power cut in the depth of winter and finishes inside the writer's ribcage, where it is even darker. This is not a world without hope, but it is one that urgently needs to wake, to face the dark and change it.

Increasingly confident, Batten uses his distinctive, lyrical voice as a call to reflect on what might really matter in life.

'The Great Escape'

Light seems to be giving up.
Day considers changing sides.
Heat slinks away-sun narrowing
its arc, shortening the line.

Trees withdraw to their inner worlds.
The birds' evacuation manoeuvres
started weeks ago. Life closes down,
digs in, takes cover-even soil plays dead.

Only we remain obliged
to carry on. Otherwise exodus
by a southern corridor, the quiet
flight from night's great pincer movement.