As we voyage through the uncharted waters of the post-Covid 2020s to the scourge of war again on the European continent, and in the Middle East, a 'cost of living' (or 'greed') crisis of capitalism, a climate and refugee emergency, and an ever-increasing worldwide gap between the super rich and the super poor, we are in a period of ever scarcer resources, a 'ragtime' of a very different timbre to the syncopated rhythms popular during the hedonistic 'roaring' decade of a century ago. 

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In Alan Morrison's twelfth volume of poetry, disparate and desperate characters across various time periods, classical to modern, real—ancient Greek orator Demosthenes, 20th c. Ukrainian clairvoyant Helena Blavatsky, Swedish artist and mystic Hilma af Klint, pioneering Slovakian psychiatrist Viktor Tausk, Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, trans-Atlantic poets T.S. Eliot and W.H. Auden—and less real—Harpies-persecuted Phineus of Greek mythology transposed as a benefit claimant preyed upon by the Department for Work and Pensions, demure contemporary spinster and budgerigar-keeper Regina Green,
death-tempted poet Parry Amphlett, and a Stochastic Parrot (AI large 
language model program) capable of sentient thought—navigate passages through ragged waters as randomly gathered 'rag argonauts'.