After Prayer: New sonnets & other poems

At the heart of this collection is a sequence of twenty seven sonnets written in response to George Herbert's exquisite sonnet 'Prayer', each one describing prayer in an arresting metaphor such as `the church's banquet', `reversed thunder', `the Milky Way', `the bird of paradise' and `something understood'. In conversation with each of these, Malcolm's sonnets offer profound insights into the nature of communion with God in all circumstances and conditions. Recognising that all poetry is a pursuit of prayer, After Prayer also includes forty five more widely ranging new poems, including a sonnet sequence on the seven heavens.