Selected Reviews of The Orchid Keeper

‘  … a fascinating collection … in the Lady with the Coronet of Jasmine the struggle between Christian Orthodoxy and Freudian libido is a strikingly successful use of the dramatic monologue. At 81 tercets, it is also courageously long in the era of the short personal lyric … a rich offering.’
The Irish Times, December 2006

‘There is a tenacious simplicity to Perry’s work which make some of the poems appear as gossamer soundings against a white background ...  His work is daring ... full-bodied ... and full of story, lyric and imagination.’
Kisoque, 2006.

‘Like W.S. Merwin, Mr. Perry seems to have a unique talent for closing lines that open numerous possibilities of meaning while suggesting something absolute, such as fate in this case ... Throughout the collection, there are multiple examples of dazzling, sonorous lines that demonstrate an impressive understanding of the contours and rhythms of the language.’
Ward 6 Review, Vol 1. Issue 4. 2006

‘Perry’s is an itinerant poetry, wandering optimistically over the page and around the world. As in Derek Mahon’s work, place in Perry’s The Orchid Keeper does not root, but keeps things moving. So many places feature in Perry’s volume - Berlin, Yucatan, Hatyai - DublinSohoParisTexasBallinamuck - that they blur into each other and mean nowhere. His is an unapologetic wandering, without even Mahon’s troubled nostalgia and though Perry’s imagination is equally a migratory one, his is no exile on a far away shore. He inverts the trope … The Orchid Keeper is at once bohemian in function and sophisticated in form. It refuses to circumscribe itself with national or any other bounds.’
Ailbhe Darcy, The Stinging Fly, Sprig 2007

Paul Perry’s The Orchid Keeper contains a welcome diversity of form and theme. Readers, after all, don’t want the same poem written forty different ways, and Perry is equally as comfortable writing historical lyrics – ‘The Lady with the Coronet of Jasmine’ – as he is producing witty prose-poems, such as ‘A Letter from Perfect’, and love poems like the delicate ‘Map Lover’.
Paul Perry’s concerns are satisfying, his imagery sensuous, and what reader could ask for more from a poet’s work?
Nuala Ní Chonchúir The Irish Book Review, 2008

Reviews of 'The Drowning of the Saints.'

"The Drowning of the Saints is a remarkable triumph. The poems are a coalition of imaginative flair and formal discipline. Each poem bristles with life and longing, intelligence and wit. These are lines and stanzas and poems that signal wisdom beyond his youth. In this sense he is a prodigiously gifted poet. I feel he will distinguish himself as one of the most original of younger writers."
Fred D'Aguiar, author of The Longest Memory

'There is a real care and attention the sound of the line which is to be admired, a sensual adherence to the sonic quality of the word … The best first collections this reviewer has read in a long time. Paul Perry is certainly one of the most exciting Irish poets writing now.'
David Arnold, Crimson Feet Review

Named by Dermot Bolger as one of the best books of 2003, in the Independent, Dec 20th.

'In poem after poem, Perry performs a kind of magic with words, each redolent with themes that build toward a sustained song …he seems destined to join the ranks of fellow countrymen Paul Muldoon and Seamus Heaney as the Emerald Isle's poetry ambassadors to the world.'
Steve Mueske, Three Candles Review

'Paul Perry has a great sense of the sacral, the ghost and the dream. All these poems shimmer of loss and hurt and the feelings described are as subtle as light on water. The Drowning of the Saints is a deeply felt spiritual book.'
Noel Monahan, author of 'Curse of the Birds.'

'It is the bitter-sweet taste, touch and word-feel of Perry's experimentation, his desire like the best of painters, to reach further than his contemporaries, that makes him interesting … this is poetry of a modernist kind not often tackled in this country, a chancy, racy, poetry, breathless, and emotive and risky. Paul Perry's debut collection startled me, confused me, made me think, made me angry and envious. His voice should be heard and anyone who doesn't buy a copy of this book is missing out on a real poetic find.'
Fred Johnston, Books Ireland, April, 2004.

Paul Perry's work has something of the eager declamatory enthusiasm of Whitman hearing America sing, or singing the body electric …his poetry is brimful of imaginative energy and tumbling surreal rhetoric, insolently crashing through every Poetry Workshop barrier any 'leader' could throw up ahead of him. His singularity is rooted in how he's passionate and playful at the same time, and how he takes liberties with continuity and logic and still keeps us in touch with his drift. A most enjoyable collection.
James J McAuley, Poetry Ireland Review 80