Swift

'In times and in places of casual, idle and very deliberate forgetting, these poems, so precise, sharp, sensuously present, answer back by remembering. They carry out their own injunction: "keep the small integrities / pass them on."' David Constantine 'a complex, subtle poet - Feldman treats the writing of poetry with respect, producing skilfully crafted poems where every word is chosen with care, and there is nothing superfluous' Belinda Cooke, Stride Magazine

In Jennie Feldman's second collection, the earth-shy bird of the title flies high above the territorial rivalries of its region. From the Middle East, "Swift" ranges across Europe to Scotland, always on the lookout for what coheres in the world and its telling encounters - with a Greek beekeeper, a cello maestro, lone figures on society's margins, the Latin poet Lucretius in an East Jerusalem cafe. Buoyed by music as well as water, notably the Aegean Sea and the rare rains of the eastern Mediterranean, these poems combine delicacy and vigour in their pursuit of an elusive equilibrium.