In his new collection, renowned writer and poet Harry Ricketts finds room for three songs written in Hong Kong in 1975 and a 1979 poem about a war poet. Other poems remember departed friends and early experiences and celebrate the abiding pleasures of reading, writing, and cricket. With titles for the poems as diverse as Quarantine Island,
Flanneled fools, and You can learn stuff from detective novels, Ricketts upholds his reputation for skill using dramatic and satiric tones, exploiting rhyme and other traditional devices, and making wry commentaries. Formally adroit, Just Then is by turns tender, funny, and often surprising.