Words Aloud is the follow-up volume to Words United, with around 50 poems mostly exploring how words are used and abused, for good and for ill. There are a diverse range of poems covering Michael’s family, history, education, politics and other subjects.

There is the warmth and wit of the poet’s family vignettes, affording the reader a glimpse into Rosen’s inheritance of idiosyncratic humour and ethical nerve. There is also the life-denying nonsense-speak of our current political moment. Rosen moves deftly between these territories. Words Aloud is not narrowly political. Rather, the poignant poems of family and community lend depth and liveliness to the political material. Words Out Loud acknowledges that words have been put to some terrible uses lately, by politicians and the media, but still dares to believe they might also offer us a profound kind of hope.