If you desire a larger gnu,
you will need the shimmer from a lake
amidst grassland. But a hill will do.
Divide the top half into three hearts:
cow, horse and goat. Take point X upon the hoof
and fold the top edge, thus, upon its grunt,
so it is roughly equal to the distance
from the far sun that pours beneath the black clouds
to the brown, dusty horizon.

from ‘Six Origami Poems’: a leaping gnu

Fresh Air is an exhilarating, freewheeling ride through landscapes and languages. The poems, all written on the move (tramping the Gobi desert, cycling in Irish drizzle, paddling in Tonga) have the fizz of travellers’ tales, the enchantment and the melancholy of the open road.

The Story of Molecule tells the tale of Molloy Gillies (‘Molecule’), a semi-detached twelve-year-old who one night takes his bike from the shed and pedals off to escape Evolution. In Gallas’s comical, heartbreaking sonnet-picaresque, Molecule encounters dangers, kindness, police cars and mauri on the roads of the South Island, while his father, his aunt, a bathroom fitter and a police chief wonder what life, and freedom, are all about.

Together, these two books explore a world newly discovered in the imagination: ‘Imagine: in the atlas of my soul / I could not make a thing so lovely.’

Four Thoughts from Abroad
    1    blue sky in Porvoo...    
    2    deconstructing the Turkish flag over Diyarbakir    
    3    execution of a Chinese con man      
    4    scene seen from a plane over South Asia    
A Poem from Home and Russia, Number 1:
Sputnik over En Zed    
Five P.each Pomes
    1    the price of goats’ milk    
    2    gecrong    
    3    flowers    
    4    do not    
    5    I fink    
Two Still Lifes Painted at the Subject
    1    Ode to Autumn    
    2    banana    
Three Site-Specific Poems
    1    poem to be read by the fire    
    2    poem to be read at a swimming lesson    
    3    poem to be read while cycling    
Three Poems Written in Mongolia
    1    the Mongolian Women’s Orchestra    
    2    bits of Karakorum    
    3    man in a yellow del    
Introduction and Exercise Concerning the Kenning,
After Snorri Sturluson’s ‘Skáldskaparmál’
    1    introduction to the kenning    
    2    a simple kenning exercise    
A Text with txt: MOT for Prisoner MH 8313    
Five Excuses
    1    homework    
    2    wedding    
    3    listening    
    4    football    
    5    writing    
Poem Written After a Dream Dreamed at the Exact Time of
the Death of Luciano Pavarotti: the Apotheosis of Pavarotti    
Poems Describing my Four Favourite Pictures in the National Gallery    
Two Poems Written in Scotch Drizzle
    1    in the graveyard at Campbeltown with a wet beanie    
    2    the statues of Glasgow and Campbeltown    
Two Norfolk Beach Poems
    1    sunrise at Brancaster Beach    
    2    the Golden Sands Amusements, Hunstanton, on
St Lucy’s Day    
Three Translations of Nineteenth-Century Folk Songs
    1    from Rolovia    
    2    from Doppland    
    3    from Briagon    
A Poem from Home and Russia, Number 2: the Cold War    
Four Transexualised Poems
    1    Brother, Awake !    
    2    Simplex Munditiis      
    3    Hear, ye Menfolk     
    4    The Mermen’s Song    
Poem Inspired by a Vacuum Cleaner: vacuuming sunshine    
The Complete Yellow Bestiary of Tragley Bizumpoi
(b. Bologna 1621–d. Pin’Shen 1639)
    1    the Canary-bird.    
    2    the Peruvian Fly    
    3    the Mongol-Goose    
    4    the Yellow Sallys    
    5    the Seawasp    
    6    the Sulphur Butterfly    
    7    the Urobat    
    8    the Kinkajou    
A Poem Concerning my First Memory: babybathoughts    
A Sonnet for my Cat    
A Poem with the Name of Every Child in the World In It:
flags of all nations    
Six Origami Poems
    1    Derry Railway Station    
    2    Elvarethilion     
    3    a leaping gnu    
    4    Korotangi    
    5    the Golden Gate Bridge    
    6    resectoscope    
A Poem Written in Sickness: love on a yellow bedspread    
A Poem Written Completely in the Dark: lights in water    
A Sonnet Fit Against Adventure by the Hobbit Barley
Quagtrout, Who Once Went as Far as the White Downs,  but Did Not Like Them    
A Poem Written While Walking in the Fresh Air and Drizzle
with a Piece of Paper and a Pencil Near Campbeltown in Scotland: on Davaar Island    
Eleven Ideas for Poems    
A Poem Written While Tramping in the Fresh Air on Mount Robert, St Arnaud, New Zealand: the balance    
A Poem from the Darkling Days of Samuel Beckett,
Written in a Hole in the Turf at the Top of Lugnaquilla
During Hail: in a womb, I think …    
Three Great Scientific Ideas Clearly Explained in Poetry
    1    Natural Selection    
    2    Black Hole    
    3    Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity    
Two Poems Written on Empty Islands
    1    the yellow-blinded fale, Manono, Samoa    
    2    Sark    
A Poem Written by the Light of Rockets on Fireworks Night: death and fireworks    
A Poem Written While Riding an Irish Bike: Knock Knock    
Figures of Peach, Pear and Plum
    1    alliteration    
    2    anaphora    
    3    epiphora    
    4    antithesis    
    5    parallelism    
    6     apostrophe    
    7    assonance    
    8    chiasmus    
    peaches to pears
    9    euphemism    
    10    hyperbole    
    11    accismus    
    12    litotes    
    13    catachresis    
    14    metaphor    
    15    metonymy    
    16    onomatopoeia    
    pears to plums
    17    oxymoron    
    18    paradox    
    19    personification    
    20    antanaclasis    
    21    simile    
    22    synecdoche    
    23    zeugma    
    24    tetracolon climax    
A Poem Written While Walking in the Fresh Air and Rain at Vester Cove, Donaghadee    
Eight Possible Fragments of Wasit Huraira’h (fl. c. AH 700–710)
    fragment 1    
    fragment 2    
    fragment 3    
    fragment 4    
    fragment 5    
    fragment 6    
    fragment 7    
    fragment 8    
Two Dances in the Fresh Air
    1    at the standing stones at Baltray, Co. Louth    
    2    on the Heaphy Track, near Karamea, New Zealand    
A Haiku with an Explanatory Note    



1      Molecule leaves home    
2    he goes back for his bike    
3    Dad wakes up    
4    Molecule spends the day asleep    
5    Tahuna Beach     
6    Mr Gillies goes to the police    
7    Molecule reaches Nelson Cathedral    
8    dawn at Atawhai    
9    Dad and Auntie Jack talk    
10    Molecule is seen near Cable Bay  
11    nearly nearly near Hira     
12    Molecule gets blown over    
13    his dream on Whangamoa Saddle    
14    Molecule spreads the word    
15    Mr Gillies wraps his Christmas presents    
16    Molecule eats at the Something Oven    
17    Molecule is confirmed alive by a day-person    
18    Molecule goes for a swim    
19    he visits the giant totara    
20    at Richmond Community Policing Centre    
21    Molecule sees some hunters and fishers at the pub    
22    life at the Richmond Community Policing Centre    
23    Molecule’s breakfast and wound    
24    Nana Gillies goes to bed    
25    how things are    
26    no publicity please    
27    what Mr Gillies knew about his son    
28    sex on a windy road    
29    what Molecule’s heart told him    
30    chased by a helicopter at Momorangi Bay    
31    how he was    
32    the Picton Ferry    
33    on the foreshore    
34    elevation and balance     
35    an argument overheard     
36    Jeff visits Wig and Steff    
37    Jesus lights in Blenheim    
38    and out the other side       
39    Molecule is sighted sleeping in a vineyard tractor    
40    his chain comes off    
41    Molecule’s dream    
42    Jeff Gillies sends a deceptive e-mail    
43    a fast ride to Ward    
44    the e-mail is received    
45    Christmas thoughts at Atawhai    
46    puncture and capture    
47    what should Molecule do?    
48    taken    
49    home again    
50    Nana gets the news    
51    home alone    
52    Mr Gillies’ note and swim    
53    same thing, different direction    
54    another missing person    
55    another night at Rabbit Island    
56    Sunday the 21st of December     
57    because he’s mine    
58    feast at Mapua wharf    
59    Nana comes Christmas shopping    
60    a lighted window    
61    Ruby Bay    
62    an accidental headline    
63    Motueka    
64    near Riwaka    
65    and this is God    
66    a hop story    
67    on Takaka Hill    
68    Happy Christmas    
69    look no brakes    
70    friends    
71    a Takaka bride    
72    clean the next night    
73    clean too    
74    Saturday at the Springs     
75    Patons Rock like     
76    chookfeed     
77    sick and sought    
78    death of a bike    
79    what they had to do
80    1st interview with Amy Steffert    
81    a knight without a horse    
82    1st interview with Amy Steffert (2)    
83    at the old graveyard in Excellent Street    
84    1st interview with Amy Steffert (3)    
85    Collingwood-watch    
86    New Year’s Eve    
87    stars and people    
88    the motel    
89    Molecule escapes just in time    
90    money    
91    eaten by things    
92    off road    
93    DS Baigent understands     
94    wall    
95    Fossil Point    
96    Jeff and Jack look at a holiday brochure    
97    Molecule stays a second night at Fossil Point    
98    tourists    
99    was Molecule the cause of the Picton Ferry suicide?    
100    incitement ?    
101    Molecule walks to Pillar Point lighthouse and Cape Farewell    
102    Dad thinks again    
103    Nana Gillies spends time    
104    Molecule agoraphilia    
105    DS Baigent and the bloody phone    
106    evolution extinguished    
107    haere ra goodbye