Even the gulls were bitter mourners, their stark cries were of desolation. Jolted from the night to day they rose from rock and soared to light. Something had come to some bleak ending, something not trivial but huge, something made significant. And they rose to find out what it was; could not find out what it wasn't, could not find out what it had been, could not discover what it might become. But something had put a flurry in them; something had stirred a wing to strike, something had risen and sunk back. And they wheeled once, twice and again they landed, settled back to where they had been, folded their white wings, each to each and went on being gulls again. "August Light" is Pete Morgan's first full-length collection of poetry since "A Winter Visitor" (1983), and its publication marks the thirtieth anniversary of his first pamphlet appearance from "Arc - I See You on My Arm". Once described in the TLS as 'a genuine original' by Edna Longley, Pete Morgan demonstrates in this new collection that he still retains the place claimed for him by Martin Booth writing in "Tribune": '...one of the best social poets writing in this country.'