Irish poet Robin Robertson reads from his work, followed by a short Q&A session and a book signing.

Robin Robertson is from the Northeast coast of Scotland. He has published five collections of poetry–most recently Hill of Doors–and received a number of accolades, including the Petrarch Prize, the E.M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Cholmondeley Award, and all three Forward Prizes. He has also edited a collection of essays, Mortification: Writers’ Stories of Their Public Shame; translated two plays of Euripides, Medea and the Bacchae; and, in 2006, published The Deleted World, a selection of free English versions of poems by the Nobel laureate Tomas Tranströmer. His selected poems, Sailing the Forest, will be out from FGS in Fall 2014.

WEDDING THE LOCKSMITH'S DAUGHTER

The slow-grained slide to embed the blade 
of the key is a sheathing, 
a gliding on graphite, pushing inside 
to find the ribs of the lock. Sunk home, the true key slots to its matrix; 
geared, tight-fitting, they turn 
together, shooting the spring-lock, 
throwing the bolt. Dactyls, iambics — >the clinch of words — the hidden couplings 
in the cased machine. A chime of sound 
on sound: the way the sung note snibs on meaning and holds. The lines engage and marry now, 
their bells are keeping time; 
the church doors close and open underground.

—from Slow Air