Paul Sutherland has been writing and publishing poetry since 1970, with ten collections to his name. This monumental new book includes significant pieces from that period, along with new and unpublished works, constituting a personal epic that spans four and a half decades of writing.

It charts the poet’s life from his Canadian roots to immigration to the UK, from agnosticism to Christianity to Sufi Islam, and from natural wonderment to a greater understanding of the world around us. The collection is in turn heartfelt, philosophical, and beautifully lyrical, as Sutherland lays bare for the reader his experiences and perspectives – at once particular and universal. Completely unique, this is an unflinching and forensic exploration of a life lived through language.

Originally published in 2012, this second edition of Journeying gives a new generation of poetry readers the chance to experience what is arguably the crowning achievement of Paul Sutherland's fifty-year writing career.

Here, 'journeying' is a state of mind, a destination in itself, and a physical reality. The process of moving from place to place is brought to life in compelling detail, along with moments of absolute stillness and clarity; connecting with nature, family and history (both global and personal) at the deepest level. Concluding with the 3000-word poem ‘Red Hawthorn-Hedged’, in which the themes of the book are together in a breathtaking finale, this is a book set to move and inspire all who travel between its covers.


"Paul Sutherland makes a poetry of contradiction: psychological and intellectual inquiry are matched by a ready emotional depth; epic and intimate scales overlap; it’s homeless and historically rooted, free and exact."
— Ian Duhig

"The poems are a beautiful evocation of landscape and longing. There is a great sadness in them, a feeling of an exile from a place that had once been home, but also a sense of alienation from a place which is now home. They capture beautifully the need to return and the knowledge that you never can... a superb collection."
— Karen Maitland

"Paul Sutherland's masterful ability to travel between the abstract, almost philosophical layers of thinking and the very concrete, earth-like reminiscences, is something any reader will find fascinating."
— Mario Susko

"Paul Sutherland is a poet who evokes so well the perspective of the foreign traveller who has eventually settled, almost without realizing it, in a land thousands of miles from his own. Paul’s compelling way of telling stories in poetry opens the door widely and generously to the humanity of his world, which as we read on, becomes ours."
— Ian Seed