Manganese starts with a murder in China in the age of Confucius and ends
with a sestina about a difficult family Christmas in front of the
television. Plain-spoken narrative is juxtaposed with an enigmatic,
densely woven imagery exploring fugitive states of mind. Uniting these
extremes is a restless, rhyme-driven craftsmanship, energetic in making
new forms as well as in exploiting traditional ones. The focus ranges
from landmarks in cultural history, such as the first performance of
Nijinsky's ballet L'aprés-midi d'un faune and the first Boy Scout camp,
to the poet's responses to a serious cycling accident. There are
versions of ten of Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus, following the rhyme
scheme of the original German, and a long section of poems
('Skywatching') that combine conventional with consonantal rhyme, often
capturing thoughts that travel too fast or too deep for reason.
Sparkling with bravado and wit, but with moments of disarming
tenderness, Manganese is one of the most abundantly various collections
of poetry to appear in recent years.