Urban by Derek R. King takes us to a place where nature and urbanization intertwine in a beautiful, yet gritty way. You feel like a wind turbine is a graceful creature, and asphalt a beautiful black onyx river. Nature’s influence on the hustle and chaos of urban life is obvious as the vivid imagery of this collection draws us into a world of metamorphosis. This poetry book will take your breath away as it shows the connection between these two seemingly separate entities.

5.0 out of 5 stars 

King weaves poetic magic

Urban is gritty, real, and oh, so beautiful as King weaves his poetic magic on every page, leaving the reader believing all manmade structures and features in our world grew in place like nature herself. An amazing accomplishment! If you haven’t read King’s work before— start right here.

Bringing the poetic to the familiar

“Derek King leads us on a poetic journey through a familiar landscape viewed through fresh eyes. A touch of the silent observer pointing out the forgotten, disregarded or ignored. The repetitive thought in my head ‘I’ve never thought about it like that’ inspires us to seek the poetic in the ordinary like the poet himself.”

A gorgeous collection of urban verse

This is a beautifully crafted poetry collection. It is akin to the lovingly penned odes to nature that were so typical of the Romantic Poets but King has dedicated his verse to urban cities and environments.

“Groaning sound of cobbled streets/vehicle tyres it gently meets”

In between poems are art and images which is a lovely touch and at the end of each poem is a note where the verses were inspired.

Particular favourites for me are on P.12, about the urban fox, P. 26 about traffic and needing to fly away and P.54, Tollcross.

The poet has a neat, structured style, with quiet percussive imagery. He is not trying to pretty up the environment that he writes about: he paints it just as it is. This is the poetry version of Orwell, say. The beauty lies within the simplicity of it.