Heart of Darkness
Somewhere in Europe
a man is reading a book
about himself. Who
wrote this, he wonders
as he lies in bed waving
his frail insect legs.
Authors write themselves,
he declares while reading on
and trying to fly.
Then he starts to write.
Hungarian-born George Szirtes’s twelfth book of poems, Reel (2004) won the T S Eliot Prize for which he has been twice shortlisted since. His nooks of poetry since then are Fresh Out of the Sky (2021) and his collaboration with Alvin Pang, Diaphanous (2023). His memoir, The Photographer at Sixteen was awarded the James Tait Black Prize in 2020. In 2024 he was given the King’s Gold Medal for Poetry.