Chilcot, Arkan, Dick Cheney, the Middle East: subjects, some topical, that find expression in these new poems which explore the genre of “Immoralism” – a notion developed from the writings of André Gide which describes a tendency to identify with the suspect, as with the personae of Robert Browning.  The words take us beneath the external face of society.  A long piece, My Part in the Downfall of Everything, is a satire on deceit.  Beyond the pale of convenient mores, there are lines here which may have lost touch with decency.  The poems hone the edge of a trope that is perhaps more sinister than irony. Their author taught in prisons until he was taken off the books for helping the inmates write material the authorities deemed inappropriate. Sometimes an incarcerated view and a criminal underworld get contrasted with an “overworld” of privilege and conspiracy.  Meaning here has a swingeing accuracy, which is perhaps remarkable, coming from a poet who pioneered abstraction in the seventies.  Yet nothing can be taken for granted.  The words still have a life of their own.

‘… Howell has style to spare and is happily unclassifiable.’  Peter Porter,  The Observer 

‘…So much good poetry that one is astonished that Howell’s name is not better known.’   John Greening, The Poetry Review 

‘…Curiously strong.’ John Ashbery, The PN Review