Horse latitudes - Paul Muldoon

Paul Muldoon's new collection opens with a sonnet sequence, 'Horse Latitudes', written as the U.S. embarked on its foray into Iraq. Of their recent pamphlet publication, he remarked that 'the poems have to do with a series of historical battles (all beginning with the letter "B" as if to suggest a missing Baghdad), from post-Agreement Ireland to George W. Bush's America, in which horses or mules played a major role. Intercut with these battle-scenes are accounts of a battle with cancer by a former lover, here named Carlotta, and a commentary on the agenda of what may only be described as the Bush "regime".'