In A Dictionary of the English Language, Dr Johnson defines 'foul' as 'full of gross humours.' It can also mean discoloured, obscene, and profane. Yet the phrase 'a foul wind' is specifically nautical: it's a wind that blows against the direction you want to go - that sends you off- course and into misadventure.

Isn't that poetry, though, pushing back against your intention and will? In this new collection, Justin Clemens finds himself lost, wrecked, and washed up on the isle of the damned. He discovers a world of undrinkable Dummheit, stuffed to the gills with cyberpreneurs and pseudonatural secretaries, downsizing corporations and corruption taskforces, '80s rappers and '90s drugs, planetary plague and terra nullius.

With a nod to Restoration drama and contemporary philosophy, A Foul Wind is a tour-de-forceof morality, politics, and love.