Virtual and Other Realities

In “A Voyage”, which opens this book, Edwin Morgan evokes the journey of the human sperm from ejaculation to fertilization. The poem was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1996. It belongs with his poems of space exploration, his poetry of science, and his love poems. Three sequences complete this collection. “Beasts of Scotland” was commissioned by the Glasgow International Jazz Festival and set to music by saxophonist Tommy Smith. “The Five-Pointed Star” was written for the Burns Bicentenary. The title sequence of 50 triplet poems considers the consequences to reality of notions of “virtual reality”. His work uses both Scottish and European perspectives.