From time to time, a genuinely exciting poetry discovery arrives – I was going to say in the letterbox, but more usually now in the email inbox. So it was when Jakob Ziguras first sent me some of his poems, nearly two years ago now. He told me that he had been writing for some fifteen years but had made few attempts to publish his work. I could hardly reconcile the second fact with the first. It was immediately apparent, when I began to read what he had sent me, that I was not dealing with a mere beginner. Here was someone who had not only pretty well mastered the technical skills of formal verse but could employ them – and this does not always follow – to compose poetry. He was already writing with authority and a clearly individual voice.