Micheal O'Siadhail knows desire, love, trust and wonder, while at the same time facing suffering, tragedy and loss. His life has always been a yearning for meaning, and these four decades of poems work both head and heart towards a ripe wisdom. They are not only richly personal - marriage, friendship, vocation, grief - but also engage with what matters in culture and society - music, language, city life and the dynamics of history. His deep roots are Irish but O'Siadhail's scope is global. This is life lived to the full with jazz-like leaps and let-go where classical forms and variations make for playful freedom and innovation. His Collected Poems draws on thirteen collections as well as new and previously uncollected poems and song cycles, and includes a CD of him reading a selection of poems.