"Low Probability of Racoons" by Peter Howard (Envoi Poets, 1994)

If while maintaining my approach I wrote more and better poetry, and sold myself more, who would I most be like? Well, Peter Howard's a candidate, and this pamphlet/book of 37 poems shows where his career stood a decade or so ago - appearances in "Poetry Review" and "The Independent" but otherwise not far from where I am now. He's prepared to use forms, to write about science and to experiment formally. He's less pretentious than I am - I'm not keen on the short light pieces (e.g. "The Visit") and I don't think the villanelles work, but I'd have been happy to have written "Francesca Diffracted".