For those who have been to South America and the Galapagos, and also for those who dream of going, Bill New's Touching Ecuador is almost as good as the journey but not quite Quito! As a poet and inveterate traveler, New proves himself an old hand at making new connections. Whereas in his preceding collection, New travelled the world to celebrate trees, this time he climbs the active volcano Cotopaxi, rummages in the rug market at Otavalo, ruminates on the ancient Andean civilizations and savours Quecha words and names. Myths and events about and on the Equator/Ecuador clearly fascinate New. "You do not touch Ecuador until you find room in the garden for children to play, until you tend the distance within yourself."; Touching Ecuador contains an account of the hallucination that is the Galapagos, "black upon black, the gargoyles/horned, marine-"; and the book's last section has a dense, challenging duality; a lapsed believer/preacher is looking for a new life in the mountains and an Everyman is travelling the world to discover "reading north depends on south, and south north: the idea of here discovers there."; The Tourist arrives in the high mountain capital and begins his transformation into Traveler. "I come from a country of zero degrees/ every winter a measure of minuses, windchill and toque,"; New writes. "The Tourist snaps pictures, moves on. The Traveler/ steps lightly on the line, plants feet across it, listens to the voices in the mountain air."; The fecundity of the land bewilders him, and much is unclear. Mists, language, ancient religion; the traveler cannot touch, hold or define the Line except through "glimpses of connection/ leaving intact the ambiguities of liberty."; 0-88982-223-0

-- Hannah Main-van der Kamp, who regularly reviews poetry from Victoria.

[BCBW 2006] "Poetry"