In his first book since the novel Napoleons Retreat, and his first collection of poems in almost a decade, Robert Allen continues to dazzle with his astonishingly diverse work. Among other things, Ricky Ricardo Suites contains 46 new sections of the long poem The Encantadas, which Phil Hall called ...a wondrous poem: dense, lush, hypnotic. Critical Comment In his first poetry collection since Magellans Clouds, New and Selected Poems (1990, Vehicule Press, Signal Editions), Allen writes clear and provocative poems on a range of subjects, casually observing Errol Flynns cock, getting cable, conversations of what Al Purdy could get away with, Ricky Ricardo, and on the birth of western music. The Antigonish Review, 2002 British born and raised in England, Canada, and the United States, Robert Allen is the author of a number of books of poetry and fiction, including Magellan's Clouds, The Indigo Hotel, Wintergarden, The Hawryliw Process, Blues & Ballads, A June Night in the Late Cenozoic, and Napoleon's Retreat. Robert Allen is the editor of Matrix and for many years served as the director of the Concordia creative writing program.