The Icon Maker

“Stubbs’ is a poetry complementing the paintings of Francis Bacon, the plays of Beckett and Pinter. A voice as distinctively original as the later W. S. Graham.”

–Matt Simpson

 

The poetry of Paul Stubbs presents an original and unorthodox re-evaluation of religion and human existence, powered by a visionary impulse which, in The Icon Maker, sees the principal theological players in a world ‘beyond’ religion called to account and made to face uncomfortable transformation into corporeal beings.

Resolute atheist, jaded sinner, ecclesiastical man – all are the poet’s targets, and in this fine second collection, we encounter a poet working uncompromisingly with language, hounding it to keep it awake and to take on the unrefined materials of his imagination.

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“Every now and then a poet appears who seems to be trying to find a new role for poetry itself; Stubbs’ poems contain concrete images of mythic power. He is driven by a concept and a theme that is large and demanding. But in his hands, it is not a questioning of Theology, but is an interrogation of the nature of the void that the lack of religious underpinning has left.”

—Graham High, Poetry Salzburg, n°15, Spring 2009

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“The muscular lines, the moral seriousness and the passion for metaphysics in the poetry of Paul Stubbs are all reminiscent of the work of Geoffrey Hill.”

—Keith Richmond, Tribune, 23 Jan 09

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