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Travis Roy  |  by books.guardian.co.uk. All rights reserved. 11.10 | 14:26

While the bulk of the collection resides in this landscape, Curtis is not afraid to journey further afield. Several poems visit America's "vast prairies" and "vintage" light, while an early sequence takes its inspiration from artists; a poem in the voice of the painter Oscar Kokoschka, describing his request for a life-size doll of Alma Mahler after the end of their torrid affair, is particularly intriguing. However, despite well-chosen subjects, his historical pastiches tend to lack emotional life.

It is when he engages directly with the world around him, whether via a granddaughter's "first snow" or the "god-governed, paper-torn clouds" of his own country, that his poems sing. To order Crossing Over for 7.

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