So here?s the world again . . .? begins the title poem of Justin Quinn?s sixth collection, a world that is ?suddenly large / and intricate?, and that encompasses ?the usual bloody mess / of Central Europe??where the author lives.

By adjusting classic patterns to new landscapes and new times, this ?realist with a strong social conscience and sense of history? (Rory Waterman, TLS) teases answers to questions of nostalgia for his?native Dublin and of the future in store for his children abroad.

With verbal wit and formal, fluent ingenuity these poems embrace the erotic as their author identifies with birds he describes that??sing that they?re alive?.