Lucy has published a pamphlet of thirty sonnets, Sonnets for my Mother (Hearing Eye, 2009), and two collections of prose poems with Shearsman Books. Stalker (2012) was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. Her second book of prose poems is Of Heads & Hearts (2018). Her most recent collection is Viewer | Viewed (2023).
Viewer | Viewed (2023)
‘When I approach experimental poetry, particularly when it’s related to images – the ekphrastic relationship – I ask myself, does it work? By that I mean, does it carry off the symbiotic closeness, does it make me feel there’s a strong reason why the two art forms feed off each other? In the case of Lucy Hamilton’s Viewer | Viewed, the answer is a resounding Yes.’ Robert Vas Dias
View photomontages and a selection of poems from Viewer | Viewed
Of Heads & Hearts (2018)
‘There is nobody writing prose poetry in any way close to Lucy Hamilton’s. Of Heads & Hearts is an intricate and rich collection that riffs on the interconnectedness of human relationships with the deft movements of a musical score. Here is a poet writing at the height of her talent using precise and controlled language to build toward a cumulative collage of characters, threads and associations all in conversation with one another. Of Heads & Hearts becomes more and more rewarding with each re-reading, most notably the utter ache at the heart of the `Requiem for the Engineer’ sequence.’ Kaddy Benyon
Read a selection of poems from Of Heads and Hearts
Stalker (2012)
‘The insidious peril that haunts these pages appears in various guises against a backdrop of France, Germany, Greece, the USA and the UK. Stalker is a collection of prose poems in which the narrator attempts to make sense of every day experience, turning to Rilke, Van Gogh, Steinbeck and others in her quest for understanding.’ Linda Black
Shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection (2012)
Read a selection of poems from Stalker
Sonnets for my Mother (2009)
These thirty sonnets were written over a period of five years when, following major illness, the poet’s mother was moved from her flat in Norwich into a residential home close to her daughter in Hythe, Kent. The poems record (with fragments of French nursery rhymes and songs) the final years of a close and intense relationship.
Read a selection of poems or reviews of Sonnets for my Mother.
Lucy Hamilton Poetry 