These poems want urgently to know how the secular spirit can lift itself in the face of mortality and human violence. They are full of richness and courage and surprise, turning from grief to curiosity; then to beauty, humour, anger, gratitude, acceptance - and once again to curiosity. Many of the poems were written while Bill Manhire was the Katherine Mansfield Fellow in Menton, France. "Lifted" is a book by a poet writing at the height of his powers.