<DIV><DIV>Informed by a consciousness that is as fiercely personal and tender as it is public-minded and political, this compelling collection presents a wide range of poetry, from a sonnet, a sestina, and a villanelle, to a pantoum, a ghazal, or a fluid free verse poem. Divided into two parts, the book's first part contains a series of muse poems that are inspired by lines or images from the Italian poet, Eugenio Montale, and also influenced by the Hull-based poet, Philip Larkin. The central themes of these poems—longing, inspiration, unrequited desire, aging, change—are beautifully surmised in this important sequence. The second section varies between quick family portraits, pointed observations and musings on landscapes and seasons, several sharp political pieces, and poems that seek to unsettle prejudices and thwart conventional expectations. </DIV></DIV>