Philip Casey

The Year of the Knife
Poems 1980–1990
was pub­lished by
Raven Arts Press, 1991.
ISBN 1 85186 086 X
The Raven Collection

cover photo: Tony O’Shea

for James Liddy

Cover Endorse­ments

Things that please me in poetry are pre­ci­sion, com­pas­sion and images that sur­pass the com­mon run of lan­guage; also that the poet must have an ear for lan­guage as a musi­cian has an ear for music. The work of Philip Casey, espe­cially The Year of the Knife, pos­sesses all of these in abund­ance.
Michael Hartnett

The splend­our of Philip Casey’s work is that it is rig­or­ous and hard; and some­how also at the same time bright and kind. It’s this unique mix­ture that sets him apart. Jubil­ant, edgy, ordered, wild — a New and Selec­ted Poems as good as gold.
Sebastian Barry

Cer­tain poems were pre­vi­ously pub­lished in Cyphers, Ham­burg Inter­na­tional School Year­book, Even­ing Her­ald, Ire­land of the Wel­comes, New Irish Writ­ing (The Sunday Tribune), Voice­free, Nord Deutsch­lander Rund­funk, The Observer, Poetry Kanto (Yoko­hama), Stet, Stand, Quarry (Ontario), and Poetry Aus­tralia.
Thanks are also due to The Arts Council/An Chom­hairle Élaí­on for a Bursary in Lit­er­at­ure; to the Tyr­one Guthrie Centre in Anna­maker­rig, where some of these poems were writ­ten; to Paddy and Eileen Doyle, for the use of a com­puter; and to those who gave their time and wis­dom in read­ing the poems in manu­script.
Designed by Dermot Bol­ger & Susanne Linde. Cover design by Rapid Pro­duc­tions. Cover photo by Tony O’Shea. Prin­ted and bound in Ire­land by Col­our Books, Ltd, Baldoyle.