In The Crossing Fee Iain Bamforth re-stages the odyssey of the legendary German hero who falls into a lake in the Black Forest and emerges in the China Sea. Circulating between Europe, the Philippines and Indonesia (where Bamforth worked for five years as a health consultant), the poems sound the ‘plummet and allure’ of life on both worlds. Grounded in myth and also in close observation, The Crossing Fee records a momentous exploration of space and history: ‘For the tides are always bringing / news of something strange.