Lisa Gorton

Brendan Ryan’s poems have a suddenness about them. They are suddenly frightening, suddenly strange, suddenly free—and feeling floods back through them. This makes them at once exact and hallucinatory. They are, in equal measure, companionable and scarifying. They have a sense of necessity; equally, a sense of memory, uncontained. ‘The lowlands of Moyne’ is a major achievement. Philip Hodgins, I think, would have admired these poems.

Robert Adamson

I have followed Brendan Ryan for years, clipped his poems from newspapers and checked his name in literary journals, so it was exciting to open ‘The lowlands of Moyne’. It’s a splendid book — I have read it several times now and I love it. Ryan draws poetry from the tough work of dairy farming and factories, poetry that transcends time and class, it’s a joy to read this book, laced with dry humour and a complex humanity. Hard edged yet inviting. Ryan has a light touch and a gathering depth. ‘The Lowlands of Moyne’ is rich with living, an exciting and positive book, poetry that glows in the darkness.

For links to other work by Brendan Ryan at Walleah Press, visit here.