Over the past quarter of a century or so, Peter Robinson has gained a reputation for his lyric poetry, translations, and critical writings devoted to modern and contemporary verse. "Untitled Deeds" is composed of sequenced aphorisms, observations, and remarks on such varied topics as the fear of death, mobile phones, conceptual art, international soccer, the linguistic behaviour of politicians, market forces, and, of course, the writing and reception of poetry. It is followed by "The Draft Will", a series of prose-poems which explores some obscured questions of family history and the intimate nature of cultural inheritance, and then by "Side Effects", a set of poems in prose which - as its title suggests - is concerned with the sorts of unexpected damage produced by various life crises. Readers of Peter Robinson’s work will find his formal sensitivity and imaginative intelligence equally in play here. Those new to his writings will have an unusual introduction to his abiding cultural and literary concerns.
