Fathers consider their children and children consider their fathers in this powerful, nuanced book about masculinity, legacy and distance. Poems by Hugh Dunkerley and James Harris depict the joy of new parenthood, casting a poignant light on poems depicting estrangement between poets and fathers, including Jerrold Yam's heartbreaking poem 'Ornament': '[the pond] seems,/ as I grow older, to be more perfect/ for my father’s affections/ than I can ever be.'
Silence dominates, as poets explore words unspoken and feelings suppressed, but reconciliations also emerge from unlikely places: through wearing a father's gloves; through ghostly meetings in pubs and train stations; and at the bottom of the garden by the shed. This is a deeply moving, honest and truthful book about fatherhood.