"Never resist
an idea. Never say no
to a contradiction."
(from 'Cain's Book')
The Bengal Engine's Mango Afterglow (VUP 2012) by Geoff Cochrane is hot off the press, and I've been enjoying reading another slim volume from this excellent poet who combines confession and eclecticism with a carefully crafted and spare presentation.
Many a Geoff Cochrane line is placed to offer a punch or a moment of recognition, even enlightenment, and it's no coincidence that Japanese poets wander in and out of the pieces in this collection - their kind of formal restraint is a style that Cochrane has perfected.
Geoff Cochrane received the 2009 Janet Frame Literary Trust Award for Poetry. Since then he has also published The Worm in the Tequila. In a review of that volume, Craig Cliff says:
"The true joy of reading Geoff Cochrane is in the lines."
David Eggleton notes that Cochrane is:
"a frugal poet, thriftily recycling anecdotal skerricks and wisps of philosophical thoughts and self-destructive deeds into highly sophisticated works of art"
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