The Orchid Boat

*The Orchid Boat* is a weave of stories: some personal, some historical, some real, some imaginary. Often these may co-exist in a poem just as they do in one's everyday mind, as a collage mirroring our own perception of the world. It is a mix that can include Alexandria or China or Brighton or North Wales. These interwoven stories insist on the acceptance of contradictions and complexity in people and in life; a recognition characteristic of Harwood's poetry and shaped by his acknowledged influences: Gide, de Montherlant and Cavafy, John Ashbery and Frank O'Hara. In Harwood's poems the richest material and tone is found in "the ordinary," and in *The Orchid Boat* this focus is thrown into even greater relief as he explores the power and weight of memories.