One of the pleasures of regularly writing reviews is the opportunity to read closely the work of some of today’s finest, young writers. Over the last two years I have been stunned by the quality of writing that some of these writers are producing. Stewart Carswell is a young writer to add to that group.

Carswell poem, To the source, provides us with an insight into the concerns of his debut collection, Earthworks (Indigo Dreams Publishing, 2021). A river prompts him to reflect on the notion of beginnings. He writes, ‘Everyone is aware of endings/ but a start is hard to find’. Earthworks sees Carswell appealing to familiar landscapes to help him make sense of the world around him: to find reasons for the way life is and to explain the nature and significance of relationships. Life, however, he finds defies easy explanations: it’s a puzzle that at times…