Insight and humour are united with astonishing linguistic dexterity in these poems and sequences. Crafting extraordinary tales from often ordinary scenes, with language sharpened by experience, Reibetanz offers poems light as air yet thoroughly rooted in the earth. Throughout this kaleidoscopic collection, John Reibetanz alters the shape of experience.

From his effortless evocation of the hard-edged world of Greek mythology to his exploration of the intimacies of birth and friendship, from the gutsy blues of Robert Johnson to “the tiny mice that live backstage in my computer,” his poetic “transformations” turn the world upside down, then right side up again, paying homage to its vast, transforming otherness.