'This collection draws on expert knowledge of an apparently inexhaustible range of subjects. Morrison is as comfortable wittily relocating the Athenian philosopher Demosthenes to a Bognor Regis pharmacy as he is dissecting the life and work of WH Auden or creating as substantial a poem as Margate Fragments from Matthew Hollis’s

The Waste Land — A Biography Of A Poem. On our odyssey through broken Britain Morrison also introduces us to fictional characters such as the troubled poet Parry Amphlett, Regina Green — “dying from the hands down” — and Agatha Rag, whose 'catarrh-rattling laughter/ Clatters through the high street like a kicked tin can.' ... Class, unemployment and the benefits system are among the central issues. The link between poverty, mental illness and the intergenerational trauma that can lead to utter despair in the absence of hope is traced. ... The scope of intellectual inquiry, the application of critical thinking and the marshalling of biographical and other information are used throughout to create poems of great intensity and depth. These are poems that demand our full attention and necessitate careful reading. There is more than one poem in this collection concerning literary history that would easily warrant a scholarly essay of its own. In all, Rag Argonauts is an outstanding achievement that is every bit as ambitious in scope and purpose as it is accomplished in its artistry.'

Paul Laughlin, The Morning Star

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'Morrison has developed his own distinctive form, the ‘verse essay’: long discursive meditations on historical and political themes, musically taut, plumbing lyrical depths, but variously polemical, argumentative, or scholarly in tone; often, in intertextual bricolage, including substantial quotations. Here, he uses the propulsive form to parse the fascinating lives and careers of his ‘Rag Argonauts’ like long curling fruit peels: mottled in tone, these poems read as if cut and flourished in one skilful gesture, often in very long sentences. ... The title fuses a reference to

an ill-fated character in the myth of the Argonauts – a blinded prophet plagued by Harpies – with a metaphor used by disabled people to describe their limited reserves of energy, here taking on Eliotian resonance. ... Rag Argonauts is not, though, a monument to hopelessness, but a plangent work of symphonic scope, in which music, beauty, nature, compassion and spirituality provide a stirring counterpoint to the predominant themes of entrapment and despair.'

Naomi Foyle, London Grip

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'This is the most personal and up-to-date of all the collections of Morrison’s that I’ve read. Although Rag Argonauts deals with societal corruption and injustice as always, the constant, lifelong misunderstandings and persecution related to his autism are a departure. In 'Casualties of Verse’ I was expecting to hear a reference to him – ‘that last-ditch attempt to fumble up the ladder of thought to futile song’ – yet it is there in the weft of the poem; and immediately afterwards in the ‘permanent shadow’ of 'Fox Shadow’. The marginalisation of the neurodivergent is ever-present: ‘one of countless psychical casualties of elliptical descriptors’ … ‘spiced with aperitifs of being’s bitter absinthe’ … ‘Sophistication’s thorny crown; worshipful tropes polishing despots’ posthumous reputations’… I enjoy the sense of outburst, of sudden, uncontrollable rage and contempt at society’s lack of humanity, how it consigns people who are ‘different’ to systems and ill-thought-out assessments by legions of box-tickers. It is like being in a thunderstorm, with flashes of lightning coming from all directions, nearer and closer then further away again. And so much more... Christopher Moncrieff

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'Morrison writes long, information-rich poems … There is also a lot of autobiographical detail which feeds into the work, dealing with class, auto-didacticism, unemployment and the benefits system, education and mental health. This is all regular territory for those familiar with Morrison’s oeuvre and if you’re not already I’d suggest dipping in as he’s a poet to be reckoned with, both in terms of his unfashionable socialist viewpoint and his mix of ‘tradition’ and ‘modernism’ in relation to form and approach. …There’s an obsessiveness about his work, fuelled by anxiety which is part of its appeal. There is hard-won erudition here, not easily accessed and the embattled nature of his writing is clear to see… Here is a poet who is indeed a ranter, one of the most eloquent in fact… I love Morrison’s work and remain impressed by his output and endurance.' Steve Spence, Litter Magazine

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'I read ‘Dendrochronology’ with the enjoyment that comes with our recognition of something true that has never been so economically and so trenchantly said before, to our knowledge. …Then I read the ‘Demosthenes’ poem. Lovely! Full of what Donald Davie called “articulate energy”. Well, all Morrison’s poems are similarly full. He has the skill, and the habit, of making every phrase count, stripping out flabby words and turns of speech that we might use in conversation, leaving only the high-octane stuff; but the marvel is, his poetry still reads as the ordinary language of ordinary folk, as old Wordsworth and his chum Coleridge recommended, only heightened, and thus rendered extraordinary. … I love his wide range of topics, all dealt with substantially—no vagueness, but always saying something worth saying, precisely, with words that command our full attention …with such energy of thought! Hugh MacDiarmid set out to write a "poetry of fact" but this was nowhere as successful... Morrison’s poem of fact is so honed, and so compact, and so full of life that it is pure poetry, as well as hard fact. Bravo! More!' David Betteridge

 

'...some poems that I really like - 'Far Sight' - and 'Casualties of Verse'…
I hope that this gets the success it deserves.' Merryn Williams

 

'There are some terrific poems in Rag Argonauts – ‘Bed-Written’, ‘Demosthenes at the Pharmacy’, ‘Berkshire Leaves’, ‘The Goldfish Bowl’ and ‘Hauntology’. ‘The Four Spoons of Phineus’ is brilliant.' Andy Croft

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