A bold and fiery introduction to Ross Adamson's unique brand of rhythmical rhyming poetry. Modern Madness takes no prisoners and buzzes with cynical wit, lyrical charm and righteous rage.
This storming debut collection is both a masterwork of powerful, poignant verse and a timely, trenchant indictment of early 21st century society. It will make you think, smile, glower, question, nod, tap your foot and shake your fist.
Humankind has lost its way and modern life is absurd, alienating and increasingly unfair. Madness, in every sense of the word - foolishness, irrationality, rashness, fanaticism, delusion, insanity and fury - has pervaded contemporary culture and shows no sign of abating.
Channeling the 'divine madness' of poetry, Adamson's deft and defiant rhymes adeptly target the perceived inequities and inadequacies of our age: the flaws, foibles and futile preoccupations that must, surely, be in consequence of this modern madness.
Despite our evolved advantages, our scientific progress and our pre-eminent place in the world, we appear to be hell-bent on destroying ourselves whilst irreparably wrecking the only planet we know can sustain life.
Powerful and privileged people - those with the greatest influence - seem solely concerned with expanding their power and privilege, at the expense of everyone and everything else.
As the environment buckles under the strain of human greed and negligence, our so-called leaders duck responsibilities, deny obvious truths and defer crucial action until too late, or too little, to be of value. Obsesessed with money, status and control, they advance their own corrupt and mercenary agendas, pushing short-sighted policies and chasing short-term gains.
The threat of war looms ominously, and terrorism - both real and imagined - is used to justify ever-extending surveillance and draconian curtailments of civil liberties. Democracy has been twisted into a populist two-party pissing contest, and consumer capitalism, though finished as a sustainable economic paradigm, is the sinking ship that will take us all down with it.
But instead of standing up to the lordly 'one percent', or confronting important issues, many of the downtrodden and disenfranchised still bury their heads in vacuous superstitious scripture or float through their lives in cozy bubbles of credulity, distraction and indifference.
Overloaded by a surfeit of meaningless data and superfluous choice, and that crushing feeling that nothing we do matters in the slightest, we escape our woes with drink and drugs, gorge ourselves on processed crap, and live vicariously through vapid, manufactured celebrities.
We stockpile mountains of stuff we don't need, sell most of our precious time to The Man, and buy into fashions and fads that demean and divide us as they flatter to deceive. All the while, we pointlessly document the irrevocable decline of our species on social media.
Modern Madness is spirited, memorable, quotable, highly thought-provoking and relentlessly entertaining throughout. This is contemporary poetry at its piquant and polemic best.
Adamson is eloquent, insightful and thoroughly engaging as he skilfully waxes poetical on emotive topics such as religion, terrorism, oppression, social media, the Establishment, animal rights, class warfare, political corruption, corporate greed, rampant consumerism and the pervasive cult of ego.
He gives both barrels to the slippery, self-serving 'powers that be' and condemns their intolerable violations of privacy and liberty. He dismantles the irrational dogma of organised religion, eviscerates lazy conservatism and fulminates against the stupidity, excess and superficiality of our era.
Modern Madness is sharp and streetwise, cadent and rousing, fearless and wise. The revolution starts here.
