Contains forty-two essays that have poetry at their centre, while covering a wide range of subjects, such as film, music and contemporary art, accounts of visits to Saint Petersburg, Bosnia, the Orkneys and Venice.
The essays in Cross-Currents have poetry as their hub, but radiate to touch on a wide range of subjects, amongst them education: translation and language; the role of government as well as of the critic; music and contemporary art. They range from St Petersburg to Venice to Bosnia, and draw on French, German, and Russian allusions. Considering poetry in the context of the world, and with an eye to the common reader, they raise the fundamental question of value.
