Villon in Millerton

This is an impressive new collection, the sixth by this Christchurch-based poet, Villon in Millerton presents vivid lyrics anchored by three sequences. The title sequence imagines a fifteenth-century French poet, Francois Villon, fetching up in the isolated and deserted West Coast town of Millerton; another sequence brilliantly evokes the mysteries of the Indian rope trick; while a concluding group focuses on the contradictory character of the nineteenth-century missionary Samuel Marsden. The range of subjects - from the red admiral butterfly to the attack on Baghdad - and tones - from meditation to satire - along with the poet’s acute ear and sharp eye make this book always unexpected and illuminating.