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William Martin (1925-2010) wrote poetry inspired by the social, cultural and religious life of Northumbria past and present. He built his world from myth, from Anglo-Saxon literature and art, children’s games, ballads and street songs, as well as from the history and struggles of pit communities. His poems show both political anger and a wider concern for a society losing its common ground, its rituals and rites of passage.
Lammas Alanna is his fourth book of poems. Over its nine sections it traces the death of the Goddess and her final return in the harvest of the Marradharma. He finds her in the Mothergate of the coal mines and in the vulva denes and twin hills near his home (Maiden Paps). He draws on various sources to enrich her image and to brighten his vision of common feasting.
Price: $18.95
Publisher: Bloodaxe Books
Imprint: Bloodaxe Books
Publication Date:
25 May 2000
ISBN: 9781852243692
Format: Paperback
BISACs:
William Martin (1925-2010) was born in New Silksworth, Co. Durham. During the Second World War, he was a radio technician in the RAF, based near Karachi, where he was inspired by the Eastern religious and philosophical traditions. After being demobbed he became a gas fitter and later served in the Audiology Department of Sunderland Royal Infirmary, retiring as Head of Department. He lived in Sunderland since the 1950s. He was an active member of CND for many years, taking part in the ritual boarding of nuclear submarines in Holy Loch, Scotland in 1961. He became an artist and had work purchased and exhibited by Sunderland Art Gallery. However, oil paints and a young family were not an easy combination, and poetry became his medium from the mid 1960s onwards. For some years he wrote without any recognition, but in 1971 he had a book of poetry published to commemorate the Wearmouth 1300 Festival (Tidings of our Bairnsea). This was later followed by Cracknrigg (1983) and Hinny Beata (1987) with Taxus, and Marra Familia (1993) and Lammas Alanna (2000) with Bloodaxe.