Book Description: New Zealand, London, Brooklyn, Venice - as a relationship unfolds across continents, Shift follows. Rhian Gallagher's poetry is at the forefront of inventive, accessible, contemporary verse. In her second collection she beautifully evokes a long-distance love affair as it blooms and ages, alongside the estrangement and joy of a life lived beyond national boundaries. In the three sections of Shift, home, love, and self are each explored in a different poetic style, each given a chance to live freely, for `Giving up on words is the final failure.'