A Commonplace

A Commonplace is a dialogue about how poetry is made and how it makes a difference to our lives. Jonathan Davidson's quiet but distinctive poems – including pieces from the 17th Century, from Kyiv and Lisbon, and from Finland and Nicaragua – are complemented by outstanding work by sixteen other poets and translators.

Littered with unruly footnotes and featuring a gazetteer and bibliography, A Commonplace invites the reader to experience poetry as a lived art form.

Jonathan Davidson has spent a lifetime finding ways to release poetry into the wild. He has curated festivals, made poetry-theatre performances for the stage and radio and published books and pamphlets. This work has focussed around the English Midlands but has also taken him to India, Ukraine, the Baltic States and Central America. He currently divides his time between the Hockley Port and Digbeth districts of Birmingham. He has two grown-up children. This is his fifth collection of poetry.