Finding a Leg to Stand On: New & Selected Poems

Description

Cover; Description; Title Page; Dedication; Acknowledgements; Contents; from PROGRESS REPORT (1981); Annual Dinner; April; Cardiac Department; Comfort; Commuter; Crossing London to Suffolk; Desires; Dig; Dropping Out; The Emigré; Evidence; Father Christmas; February; God's Christmas Jokes; Hiatus; Life Study; March; May; 1915; Parent and Child; Permissive Society; Provence; Recluse; The Stable Relationship; A Suitable Case for Treatment; Synopsis; Technique; Time Slip; Travelling Light; Trespass; Underground Car Park; An Uninteresting Case; Vauxhall; Vicious Circle; form MOVING IN (1984).;Connie Bensley's poems are sharply satirical, often poking fun at social pretence and suburban pretension. They present a comedy of manners in which mismatched characters are bounced between love, death and disappointment. Hers is a seemingly small world but one which spans a whole universe of everyday life. Finding a Leg to Stand On is a retrospective selection of her delightfully pointed poems drawn from six collections published over three decades, plus new work. Cover Description Title Page Dedication Acknowledgements Contents from PROGRESS REPORT (1981) Annual Dinner April Cardiac Department Comfort Commuter Crossing London to Suffolk Desires Dig Dropping Out The Emigré Evidence Father Christmas February God's Christmas Jokes Hiatus Life Study March May 1915 Parent and Child Permissive Society Provence Recluse The Stable Relationship A Suitable Case for Treatment Synopsis Technique Time Slip Travelling Light Trespass Underground Car Park An Uninteresting Case Vauxhall Vicious Circle form MOVING IN (1984). Deadlines'It's the Position That Counts' Masters' Common Room 9 a.m. Gardening Charity A Summer Afternoon Moving In Coming Out Loss The Night Light on the Mantelpiece Dorothy Bloomsbury Snapshot A Luminary to Tea Choices Self Selection Accountability Last Words Tidying Up Survivors Postcards Perspectives Short Story Mutability Chance Meeting The Innocent Cookery Is It Anything to Worry About, Doctor? from CENTRAL RESERVATIONS (1990) Clay Pipes Bed Central Reservations August in the Offices The Claimant One's Correspondence Compassion Confession. Heaven on EarthDiversions Trouble Ahead Choice Entrails Moscow Spring Faidagery Jessie's Bakery Frank's Journal, December 1878 Wants The Badminton Game Albert Memorial Terribly Weak. Please Come. Tête-à-Tête Bargaining Chacun Leaving Jenkins History If You Come In the Summerhouse The Last Great Fog Waking in the Garden Lost Belongings Modus Vivendi Visiting Time The Slipping Glimpse Hour by Hour Your Laugh Dear Mother 'It's Up to You' Mutual Assured Destruction The Letter Love Song Two Pheasants The Sack Waiting Degree Ceremony A Friendship. From CHOOSING TO BE A SWAN (1994)Choosing To Be a Swan ... Cars Wheel Fever Surprised on a Train The Covetous Cat Jump Politeness In the Conservatory Prey Egged on by Passion - Angela on My Mind Shopper Soothsayer Adaptability The Idea Single Parent Our Life in Cars Immortality Blackheath Just Until Thin Ice Thresholds Choir Practice Mr and Mrs R and the Christmas Card List Hoi! Incubus Mrs Scipio's Umbrella The Night He Had Thirty-Two Pints The Optimist Harriet Pastoral Sunday Lunchtime The Star and the Birds Here Today Tabula Rasa Last Haiku. From THE BACK AND THE FRONT OF IT (2000)Apologia The Back and the Front of It Taking a Taxi to a Wedding Rewards The Go-Between 'The Unexamined Life is not Worth Living' Natural Selection Cut Twelve Things I Don't Want to Hear Birth Day Get a Life Insomnia English Dictation The Visit Holding Hands in the Movie Show Metropolitan Leviathan The R Word Escape Ice Cream At Kill-Two-Birds Getting Out of Hand In the Palm of His Hand House Detective Home Truths The Aspirant The Upper Hand At Madame Tussaud's Elephants Keeping on Top of Things Next Please Mésalliance.