Reading Moby-Dick and Various Other Matters

These poems are funny and profound, witty and emotional in a rare mix made possible by Martin Stannard’s skill with the nuance and complexities of language. The poet engages with Herman Melville, various Chinese poets and their (mis)translators, the American mystic Thomas Merton and others in poetry that fuses an acerbic British sensibility with the verve and humour of the New York school.

In Martin Stannard’s hands language is never tired, or threadbare, or past its sell-by date or begrudging or lightweight. (Ian McMillan)