An Englishman who has lived in both New York and Istanbul, John Ash is one of the great masters of poetic clarity. His books on the Byzantine world and ancient Anatolia are widely admired for their elegance and candor. "These poems believe intensely in the world they bear witness to.so vividly do they believe in the happenstance they behold that at times they go for quiet, unemphatic ways of talking, perfectly registered" Rain Taxi.