Recurrence

Although we think of the world as spherical, our main directions within it remain 'Down', Across' and 'Up'. These primary directions mark the divisions of this restless book of poems, Recurrence, by Graeme Miles. 'Up' and 'Down' in their different ways move outside the human game, but 'Across' travels – Australia, India and Europe – moving around poles of orientation and disorientation, sleep and waking.

Miles' poetry often turns to myth and ritual, but is not absorbed in the past. As the title implies, it is concerned with the resurgence of the apparently past in the present. It is a book of metamorphoses and returns.

Central to the collection are some longer poems and sequences. 'Photis' is an oblique short fiction, moving somewhere alongside Apuleius' Golden Ass. 'Verandah' and 'Causes' explore the traces of personal and collective histories, and the subterranean roots of the domestic and familial. Recurrence is an enticing collection that rewards a leisurely reading.