Dodgy science becomes delightful art as allegedly curative plants speak as patients in this TS Eliot prize-shortlisted collection

One of a set of justly celebrated and influential translations from the Bible, this works with vigour, invention and and anger as an original poem in its own right

Babies and lost books feature in a poem that provocatively elides thought and sensation

An illuminating offering from one of the world’s ‘active poetic volcanoes’ uses haiku influences to reflect on death’s proximity

Beneath its bright, musical texture, this meditation on an obscure musical instrument carries some very dark reflections

A luminous depiction of these beautiful creatures conceals a stark warning of environmental catastrophe

A benign metaphor for inspiration and recollection, this is a rare creature in poetry, and an unusual image of creation

Taking two turns at bringing the Italian poet’s Hic et Nunc into English, Leighton steers a fascinating course between strict and free renderings

Recalling the intense passions of teenage years with seriousness worn lightly, this poem finds room for both the throwaway and the infinite

A sensual description of the natural beauties of the eponymous group of Japanese islands, this is also a vision of earthly paradise

The luminosity of spring is captured in this short poem, one that rings with an ethereal, dreamlike atmosphere

Wilde riffs on the Greek poet Theocritus’s depictions of lovers, using sounds to embody meaning with lasting appeal to the ear

In plain free verse, the dissident Moroccan writer records both the damage done by a repressive regime and his love for his late mother

This sketch of a drowsy domestic scene is also a complex meditation on the deep structures of perception

A wry, pastoral fantasy aimed at romantic types, this all-but forgotten poem irresistibly recalls one of the most famous. And arguably outdoes it

Moving in sudden flickers and flashes, this is a character study as elusive as its governing reptilian image

Disdaining the artificial barriers between people, these verses celebrate the nature that ignores these lines, and the joys and sorrows that unite us

With churning rhythms, this poem alludes to geopolitical turmoil and speaks of longing for ‘kinder’ powers to rule our world

Although very short, this is both a vivid account of wartime separation and the most perfect of love poems

This deceptively simple poem about elusiveness uses low-key, approachable language to address some sad, unsettling mysteries

With its inventive play of ambiguity and grammatical shifts, this uneasy piece seems all too apt for our changing times

A warm pastiche of an 18th-century travelogue, this is a touching portrait of the tourist’s comical but sincere search for exaltation in Wales

With nods to both Emily Dickinson and the hymns of Isaac Watts, this finds a mineral solidity in its metaphors of life and death

A gift from Elizabeth I’s ‘saucy godson’ to his wife brings lusty and sparky life to the epigram form

This quiet, wry poem reflects on the unique, incommunicable knowledge that comes with service in conflict

Written in memory of his cattle-farming father, this tribute lends him a kind of mythical power as a guide to knowing both life and death