Author(s): David Eggleton

Poetry

A new collection of poetry by a self-confessed 'ranter', Fast Talker is energetic, contemporary, and filled with an emphatic, punchy political and social awareness. Some of the poems are Eggleton's well-known 'rants' - part showman patter, part incantation, part prophetic diatribe - that range helter skelter over the Kiwi psyche, the South Pacific, the media, the suburbs of Auckland, big business and the worlds of war and commodity. This collection is, however, more varied in tone than Eggleton's previous books and traverses a wider landscape than his usual stomping ground. Other poems, more gentle in tone, observe contemporary life in Eggleton's distinctive and vivid style, building their dense lines with forceful, cumulative images, lists and inventive language. Love poems, odes, travelogues and landscape poems offer further variety in this energetic collection which constantly shifts in tone and rhythm. First published April 2006.