East of the Sun, West of the Moon

Taz Rahman’s ‘East of the Sun, West of the Moon’ is named after the 1935 jazz standard, and like any great jazz tune – many of which inspire these poems – this collection is full of improvisation, innovation with language, and it demands a quality of listening carefully to the world, of paying attention. Many of these poems are from the perspective of a flaneur, someone who wanders through the city – in this case Cardiff – registering impressions about the people and things observed. This includes a deep fascination for nature as encountered in city parks and on the banks of the Taff as it winds its way through the metropolis.