In his first collection of poems, Martin Alexander shares the sense of home and occasional displacement felt by many who choose to live in Hong Kong, a place hovering between languages and cultures on China's margins.

"Martin Alexander's muse comes roaring up ironically astride a Yamaha Viagra. (If you think it's not possible to roar ironically, you have not yet read 'The ageing biker’s boast'.) But this muse is also to be encountered under starlight at Hoi Ha, or entering a lift or a restaurant, or struggling with words, or helplessly in love or in pain... This ground is centred in Hong Kong but it extends into South-East Asia and Spain and England, with other memories further afield. Clearing Ground practises a poetry of place; many of these eighty or so poems name a place in their title but plenty of others evoke a story or a feeling that is not to be detached from where it takes place, and when." -- Douglas Kerr

Chameleon Press, March 2004

ISBN 988-97060-9-1, HK$99 / US$12.95 / £8.50