Here is crystallized experience and formal inventiveness from a poet whose work embodies maturity and vitality. He approaches his subject matter from diverse vantage points, employing a variety of lenses to encompass broad vistas, from the Canadian West to travels abroad to the world of work. Though largely autobiographical, there are frequent departures from the first person. Roughly chronological in the order of its sections, Panoptic offers thoughtful accounts of the poet's early life, and with humour, wit and searching insight goes on to delve into relationships, explore identity and confront mortality.