Window-Cleaner Sees Paintings

The master of pulsing, post-modern poetic rhythms, Menno Wigman''s reputation is assured as one of the Netherlands'' leading poets. And as perhaps his country''s most exciting poet in terms of form: "a craftsman who knows what he wants" in the words of poet Alfred Schaffer. Wigman''s second collection won him the Netherlands'' coveted Jan Campert prize.

Menno Wigman''s first full collection to be published in the UK in David Colmer''s outstanding translation introduces English-language readers to a selection of the work of one of the Netherlands'' leading poets. Some-times referred to as a ''dandy of disillusion'', Wigman combines a classic aesthetic with rock-''n-roll subject matter to sing of sex and booze, vandalism, frustration, poetry and death. Yet despite his unflinching gaze at the grimmer sides of life, Wigman rarely writes grim poems. On the contrary, they are charged with a strong sense of social commitment and human sympathy for the marginalized and forgotten in contemporary society, and tempered with a wryness of tone and a punchy accessibility of style.

Wigman''s voice in the English language is startling and unexpected, and as such, makes a deep and lasting impact. As Francis Jones says at the conclusion of his introduction to this book: "Wigman''s poetry is a powerful brew in Dutch. Remixed in Colmer''s English, it''s heady stuff too."