In this, his sixth collection of poetry, Peter Sanger brings his archaeologist's eye, along with classical and local iconography, to his encounters with domestic implements, local ecology, cultural relics and landmarks. The poems in this collection achieve a delicate balance between the grounded and the ethereal.

"The tutelary spirit in Aiken Drum is an archetypal, mercurial shape-shifter whose name gives the collection its title," says Sanger. "Originally, the character Aiken Drum appears in an old Scottish nursery rhyme of uncertain origin. Here, he also appears in the shape of the infamous 'mysterious stranger' who called himself during a career of thievery and fantastical escapades Smith or More or Newman or – Henry Moon. His story is told in the poem sequence 'Abatos,' but his presence, in various forms (including at one point, the philosopher Wittgenstein), infiltrates many poems throughout the collection."

"There was a man lived in the moon, lived
in the moon, lived in the moon,
There was a man lived in the moon
And his name was Aiken Drum.
And he played upon a ladle, a ladle, a ladle,
And he played upon a ladle
And his name was Aiken Drum
Scottish Traditional

Before Aiken Drum, his most recent work was White Salt Mountain, exploring the scope of words in time, and is a follow-up to Spar: Words in Place (2002), a collection of essays based on life in rural Nova Scotia. Sanger has been the poetry editor of The Antigonish Review since 1985.