Soft Landings, Jenny Swann's first full collection, is about idealism and imperfection, courage and loss of nerve. She positions herself in the crossfire between the Establishment and its hooting critics, between seriousness and irrepressible laughter. Some of the poems join in and take sides, ducking and weaving through a world that is unpredictable and unreliable, with kindred spirits turning up in improbable places. Old women, schoolboys and librarians become the focus for gentle teasing and celebration, prophets of doom and bored monks make their presence felt. Elsewhere the collection is preoccupied with the act of watching, the quiet contemplation of beauty, whether the subject is the ebb and flow of human experience, the changing seasons of the natural world, or the perfect stillness of art.