Journeys and journeying occur constantly in Peter Sirr’s collection, Ways of Falling, though their focus is not always strictly geographical. A sense of dislocation or restlessness sounds in forms which are often those of travel writing — the diary, the notebook, the quickly sketched dispatch — and the poems aim for both the looseness and accuracy of those modes. An extended sequence, ‘Death of a Travel Writer’, with its shifting tones, narrative discontinuities and variable pronouns, is typical of a stimulating and beguiling book.
Sirr’s maturing continually strikes and his artistry grows apace . . . he strides forward to become, I am sure, one of our outstanding poets. — Tom Clyde, Fortnight
‘Much of what is best in Sirr’s writing is here — the simple, sometimes colloquial language, the effortless light rhymes which shape and point the discourse, the irony which does not destroy but qualifies . . . [Ways of Falling] are the poems of someone who is essentially an observer — intelligent, perceptive, wary, sometimes, as in ‘The Names of the Houses,’ sharply satiric.’ — Poetry Ireland Review
