Replicas is a kaleidoscopic collection riven together with a wide range of traditional poetic forms and techniques. The vast majority of the poems have a twin. The work as a whole acts as a mosaic of mirror images, intertextual reflections and thematic refractions. The poems are a rich blend of magic and realism. Hughes is fascinated by physical, psychological and ideological boundaries, the possibilities they present, and how we navigate them. There are symbolic existential odysseys and anecdotal parables garnered from the poet’s assignments as a press photographer.
He is both a Romantic and a cynic, his language and ideas peppered with intimate compassion, brazen humour and playful candour. It is a spaghetti junction of a world, but to stand alone gives the individual the potential for self-determinism and hopeful curiosity.