Real Estate

In Mark Ward’s confident second collection, Real Estate, we are mired in uncertainty, surrounded by dreams that are both instructions and warnings. On the page, in life, and in quiet thoughts lurking, this book wonders how to successfully create your days when the ground has given way; when house and home has become surreal, a horror film, a ghost story; when dumb flesh is determined to drag us through life’s little terrors, through grief and loss and heartbreak. Upfront and oblique, daring and inventive, these poems – with a rich dexterity of language and form – are an attempt to understand where one’s place might be in this whirlwind world. "Real Estate is remarkable for its fresh observations of modern life and relationships, rooted in Mark Ward’s clear-eyed studies of intimacy, vulnerability, and pain. Deft and playful, Ward’s work shines with lyric ingenuity and energy." Rosamund Taylor "Dazzling, exacting, unnerving. Mark Ward’s latest collection maps an erotic architecture of sex, queer longing, grief and discovery. Artfully, the body sings through these electric poems. Real Estate claims new ground and dares you to encounter it." Annemarie Ní Churreáin