Men Briefly Explained


Men Briefly Explained is my latest poetry collection. It does what it says on the cover: it explains men, briefly. In Takahe magazine, reviewer Mary Cresswell calls it "a fine book from a talented man of words" (blushing now, Mary!)

On this page:

How To Buy Men Briefly Explained
What Readers Are Saying
Tongues of Ash
Reviews of Men Briefly Explained
Endorsements of Men Briefly Explained
Sample Poems

How To Buy Men Briefly Explained

In Person

You can order Men Briefly Explained through your local bookshop. Please tell them the title, the author name, the publisher (IP/Interactive Press) and (just for good measure) the ISBN, which is 978-1-921-86932-7. They should have no problem getting hold of it.

In the Wellington region, Unity Books and Rona Gallery and Bookshop in Eastbourne stock Men Briefly Explained. Support your local bookshop!

But if you're stuck, just email me at senjmito@gmail.com and I will make sure you get a copy.

Online

Here you have a wide range of options:



What Readers Are Saying

Here are three comments from people who have read the collection:

Tim, your book arrived this morning, and I'm having to FORCE myself to stop reading and get on with the work I need to do. I am especially moved right now by "The Problem of Descendants". It's a magnificent book. - Johanna Knox

By the time you reach the third age of man you want to turn to the toddler pages and live the whole book again - Rachel Fenton

By turns poignant, insightful and laugh-out-loud funny, Tim Jones brings his trademark dry wit to a great new poetry collection. Thoroughly enjoyable! – Mary Victoria


Tongues of Ash

Tongues of Ash, the prize-winning debut poetry collection by Lower Hutt poet Keith Westwater, is being published by IP Australia at the same time as Men Briefly Explained.

You can buy Tongues of Ash from Amazon.com as a paperback or Kindle ebook. You can also find out more about it, and buy it directly from the publisher, at the Tongues of Ash mini-site.



Reviews of Men Briefly Explained

Reviews of Men Briefly Explained are now appearing:

Mary Cresswell reviews Men Briefly Explained for Takahe (PDF file).

Tim Upperton reviews Men Briefly Explained for Landfall.

Raewyn Alexander's review of Men Briefly Explained. I think it's fair to say she likes it!

Hamesh Wyatt's reviews of Men Briefly Explained and Tongues of Ash, plus collections by Rachel Bush and Joan Fleming
, in the Otago Daily Times.

Endorsements for Men Briefly Explained

Read what leading authors and poets have had to say about Men Briefly Explained:

Tim Jones' new collection holds men up to the light with poems that are intimate and playful, smart and satirical. He focuses on the rituals and carapaces of men and the relevance of that gender in the future. Men Briefly Explained is an engaging and provocative read.

Mary McCallum, award-winning poet and novelist and curator of the Tuesday Poem website

Tim Jones's poetry is both worldly and other worldly. His lines form a clear and sharp insight into his own life and the lives of others. With a distinctive and fresh voice, his poems engage with the contemporary world, its environment, its human predicament, its politics, its illusions and its fantasies.

Mark Pirie, poet, critic, publisher and anthologist

Men Briefly Explained delivers a unique, fast-paced, highly readable, sustained reflection on contemporary masculinity. Jones' poetry has an appealing personal, autobiographical quality that speaks to the heart as well as the head. Once I started to read I could not put it down.

Harvey Molloy, author of Moonshot, poet and teacher

Tim Jones writes about how it feels to be a man, of male relationships – father, son, brother, friend, lover, husband – exploring territory that men traditionally don't talk about, saying what is often unsaid, confronting stereotypes, and genetic imperatives. He writes with a blend of economy, humour and compassion that is rare in poetry, often finding the unexpected phrase – 'a diminuendo of corridors' – or an unusual, but exact, image – 'mountains piled like thunderheads' – to surprise and illuminate. This poetry is how New Women want their New Men to be – strong, sensitive and empathetic!

Kathleen Jones, author of Katherine Mansfield: The Story-Teller, is a distinguished English poet and biographer

Sample Poems

Men Briefly Explained
Years with a Husband
Summer
Tres Hermanos
The Aliquot Brothers and Return to Nussbaum Riegel (from Interlitq)
Impertinent to Sailors