Don Paterson: Selected Poems is a collection of poems by Scottish poet Don Paterson. Published in 2012 by Faber & Faber, the collection is made up of twenty years worth of poems already published by the poet.
Paterson's most famous and critically acclaimed works are included in this collection, which makes for the perfect introductory to new readers. Also included are the adaptations of poets like Rainer Maria Rilke and Antonio Machado.
The first poem "Nil Nil" is about a football team that has been on a losing streak. Their standing in the league is slowly declining, and the poem paints the grim picture, as they go from being the champions to the very bottom of the game. This all happens in a span of fifty years. The poem is however not completely grim, as there are comedic reliefs that ease their fall.
The poems incorporated into the collection have won numerous accolades throughout the decades, including the 1993 Forward Prize for Best First Collection, 1997 and 2003 T.S. Eliot Prizes, 2003 Whitbread Award, and the 2009 Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry.
