On Arrival

Paul Rossiter arrived in Japan in 1981, and during the next decade he rarely returned to Europe, instead setting out to see as much of East and South East Asia as he could. On Arrival gathers the writing that was one result of that curiosity. It includes poems from the Philippines, South Korea, Indonesia, and Thailand, as well as one each from the USA and Australia, while the title section of the book consists of ‘notebook poems’ recording incidents, encounters and experiences during the first year of his life in Japan. In addition, some brief satirical pieces in the section titled ‘Current Accounts’ comment sharply on public affairs in 1989–1991: economic bubbles, perestroika, the rise of fundamentalism, and the first Gulf War.