Waiting for the Past by Les Murray review – matter-of-fact extravagance

A transcendental collection creates a lived-in world that is both celebrated and lamented

Serious consideration of the gifts reserved for age is likely to be sobering. Les Murray does not deny it. Waiting for the Past takes in vertigo, sudden falls, diabetes, frequent night visits to the lavatory while “trying not to dot the floor // with little advance pees”. He writes of cancer as it was suffered in the days when it could scarcely be named, along with the question of care for the elderly – among whom he now numbers himself: