Plainwater: Essays and PoetryThe poetry and prose collected in Plainwater are a testament to the extraordinary imagination of Anne Carson, a writer described by Michael Ondaatje as "the most exciting poet writing in English today." Succinct and astonishingly beautiful, these pieces stretch the boundaries of language and literary form, while juxtaposing classical and modern traditions. Carson envisions a present day interview with a seventh century BC poet, and offers miniature

and even religion become subject to the demands of  entertainment

popular public lectures in Basel in 1872

the delights of Paradise and – for the elect – the beatific vision of God’s Countenance

Altenberg’s signature short prose straddles the line between the poetic and the prosaic

arguing that timid leadership

and translating through careful and illuminating discussion of the works of Bakhtin

it was part of the prevailing policy during the war – one designed to crush the Palestinian economy

he asks: Do we still have a chance

harmful views

then complete septic shock

Michel Foucault (providing a scathing critique of Foucault's valorization of power)

Its streets are cloaked in darkness