Writing from the eighth and ninth decades of his life, Alan Roddicks third collection of poetry, Next, examines the past, observes the present and speculates on the future. Anchored in the action of daily life whether it be a ride in a mirrored elevator or a roadside conversation with a friend his poems speak of migration, family, friendship, aging and mortality. Next is marked by a rare blend of uncompromising vision and deep compassion. Here is poetry that delights in warmth, humour, wit and grace, that revels in the beauty of the world, that insists on anticrepuscular rays at twilight even as its asking the niggling question: Tomorrow, though'?