The Voyage and the Vision

This book takes epic verse into new and sometimes astounding directions. A heretic priest turned spice trader crosses time to tell the true story of the first circumnavigation of Earth, not by Magellan, as commonly thought, but by his slave Enrique. Cultural icons, Allen Ginsberg, Peggy Guggenheim and Ezra Pound, dancing around each other in 60s Venice and beyond, looking for love and the meaning of art in all the wrong places. Stephen Stockwell has been a wordsmith courting controversy for 50 years and in this book, he uses traditional poetic forms to tell some big stories in unexpected ways. Also included are shorter poems recounting various adventures in the pursuit of enlightenment and lyrics he wrote for the Brisbane punk band, The Black Assassins.