Michael Benton

In the Mind's Eye Michael Benton

In The Mind's Eye comprises four groups of poems through each of which run traditional themes of time and memory. In the first two groups the themes are developed in personal terms, grounded in a strong sense of place - growing up in Sheffield and, latterly, living in Denmark. Groups three and four widen the perspective, first through exploring the relationship between poetry and the visual arts, and then by facing up to major issues in the contemporary world, notably the maltreatment of Planet Earth and the ongoing climate crisis. A distinctive feature of this collection is the grouping of poems that link poetry to the other arts - to music, to paintings, to reimaginings of classical literature - where time and memory relate to each other in different ways.