Synopsis

In this collection of over 50 new poems, the product of the past decade, Shabbir Akhtar once again speaks to the particular condition of immigrant peoples and to the human condition of all. The themes are legion, universal and never partisan: travel, madness, faith and agnosticism, talent as a hiding place, the search for meaning, the sexual pressure on the human frame, the power of death, the possibility of hope, the evil of war, the grace of love. Whether the poet is describing ‘An Evening Out’ or the pathetic beauty of an island during his ‘Pointless Travels’, whether he is saddened by an old woman’s ‘Last Days in Brighton’ or disturbed by the ‘Death of a Spring Fling’, he has chosen the unforgettable detail, the apt simile. This is a daring poetic voice that extends the range of human experience.