Fake news rules the airwaves, AI fills the skies, where's the information you can trust? Alan Riach's new collection of poems provides two answers: only in the work of art, whether poem, painting, musical composition, or else in the object of your closest attention, a lover, close family, friends. These gifts you find or dive for, sometimes simply walking on the beach, sometimes swimming deep, into the abyss. There are new discoveries, particular points that make co-ordination possible, and even, maybe, progress. But each of these moments of focus are on the edge, a coastline between land and sea, vulnerable and open to tide or storm, landslide or hurricane, the rising swamp of apathy, the tornado of mob populism. Art can be hijacked. Friends can be seduced. What the Sea Gives is perfect for not only lovers of poetry but any readers who value the importance of art and the connection it provides us.
