‘If difference,
then resistance.’

Hal Coase has a gift for catching the rhythms of speech and exchange, and an eye for a telling image. His book’s Italian title, Eccolo, meaning ‘Here he is’, or ‘Here it is’, captures his work’s immediacy, and the poems’ revelatory quality.

These are poems and sequences which relish the ways in which we (try to) communicate and know one another, emulating the techniques and effect of some of the mid-century New York School and Roman poets he admires. Coase’s writing – as playwright, translator, critic and poet – aspires to be both beautiful and conscientious. Eccolo: Poems is an auspicious debut.