The poems in Welsh poet Robert Minhinnick's latest collection were written with a keen awareness of both climate change and the current situation in the Middle East. King Driftwood draws upon the poet's travels in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Argentina, and his 25 years in the environmental movement. Politically-charged poems such as "An Opera in Baghdad" and "An Isotope, Dreaming" address the political and environmental destruction wrought by the ongoing war in Iraq. Moving closer to home, poems such as "The Saint of Tusker Rock" and "The Castaway" are vivid evocations of the historical and modern communities of the Welsh coast, where the poet lives. They introduce us to a cast of memorable characters, from treasure-hunters to drug dealers, from ancient Celtic warriors to eccentrics from the local funfair. A sensitivity to the sonic structures of Welsh language poetry runs throughout the book, lending the poems their vigorous musicality and rhythmic energy.
