Out of Range

he poems collected in Nick Drake’s fourth collection Out of Range explore the strange interconnections and confronting anxieties of the early 21st century - or the Anthropocene. Here are poems about the life stories of incandescent lightbulbs, plastic bottles and mobile phones, and the mystery of the life, death and afterlife of Alan Turing, the inventor of the modern computer. The past echoes in poems about the ancient artists who recorded their presence in cave art, Spanish missionaries thrilled by Aztec ball games, and a story of gay love from the Song dynasty. Above all, the poems seek to tune into what is out of range; the dark matter of mystery, wonder and deep time, out there at the edge of our senses, and at the back of our heads, beyond our control.