ALONE IN THE HOUSE, poems

76pp., paperback, Cape Town, 2023

Published posthumously.

“These poems are startling in their originality, witty and erudite, introspective yet curious, romantic and surreal, earthy and metaphysical, sometimes all at once. They are a revelation – and revelatory: of the power of language, and of nature, and of how the one opens up the other, to help us understand who we are in the world and the cosmos. With this collection, Michael Wessels enters the canon of South African poetry.” Mark Gevisser, author of Lost and Found in Johannesburg

“With a fierce and questing intelligence, Michael Wessels moves us through a range of poetic topographies: emotional and literary, political and ecological. The long poem 'Spots of Time' is a kaleidoscopic array of scenes from the secret life of a writer: angry, funny, mordant and tender.” Hedley Twiddle, author of Firepool

Michael Wessels (1958-2018) was Associate Professor of English at the University of the Western Cape. He is the author of Bushman Letters (2010).