When engaging this third collection by Mélisande Fitzsimons, be prepared to encounter a linguistic world of chance; a world of rapid fragmentation in experience and that same suddenness in recall.It would be simple if it was one world but no, there are many registers in experience on offer: a rapidly mobile film score; the churning mind of the poet striking out this way and that, punching at protagonists; her inward battle with self.

That sounds heavy but the truth is the poet’s adventure is hugely intriguing and rewarding for any reader of contemporary poetry.

This collection is just what poetry in the 21^stCentury has been waiting for:UNBRIDLED FRESHNESS.

The concern of this review is to reflect the fast footedness of the poems that constituteThe Only Country in the World-its poems jab with phrases:‘bones dissolve faster than concrete’‘sex or a skull on their wings’‘light falling apart’‘survival is…