Kirjahaku

This is an unusual debut anthology. The verse is by turns light, refreshing, quirky and colourful. There's a pinch of nostalgia, offset with a dollop of word play and humour. Subjects range from Eric, the gardener with possible Viking ancestry to the origins of the wheel; from spending an evening with Kylie Minogue to what might have happened if Sir Isaac Newton had been Australian or if Herman Melville hadn't misheard "quail" for "whale".

As in "Eric Bloodaxe? and Other Verse", this second, more substantial collection by Phil Poyser brings together a wide range of verse forms and styles. Although he excels at comic and rhyming poetry with which "Seconds Out" abounds, many of these poems are free verse, poignant or nostalgic and always sharply observed with one eye on the human condition. They will, by turns, make you laugh, smile wistfully and sigh, from the title poem in which you can share his Dad's passion for boxing, through ones inspired by the natural world or misheard bible stories or women through the ages, before meeting the rest of his family in "Four Characters in Search of Another".