Black Spur is printed to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the death of Barry MacSweeney, and features 24 uncollected poems from the 1970s. Hermetic, glamorous, full of vintage attitude, we see MacSweeney running the perimeter of his major serial poems and approaching the wild forays of the dangerous decade to come. The title poem is a major seven-part Ode, which asks: 'must the world's poems / die?'. The answer is yes and no.

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Thanks to the Estate of Barry MacSweeney, and to the editors of the following publications where these poems first appeared: Alembic (Peter Barry, Ken Edwards, and Robert Hampson); Ambit (Martin Bax); The Ant's Forefoot (David Rosenberg); Capella (Peter Fallon); Collection (Peter Riley); Contrasts (Russell Pemberton); The Curiously Strong (Ian Patterson and Fred Buck); The Curse of Babel (Anthony Rudolf and Peter Hoy); The English Intelligencer (Andrew Crozier and Peter Riley); Loaded Drum (Brian Marley); Lon Chaney! (Patrick Galvin Jr); Ostrich (Keith Armstrong); Poetry Review (Eric Mottram); Second Aeon (Peter Finch); Sesheta (Richard Downing and Andi Wachtel).

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All proceeds go to the Poets' Hardship Fund.