A second book of verse by Charles Sturt University (CSU) academic and poet Mr David Gilbey (pictured) will be launched in three locations – Sydney, Wagga Wagga, and Melbourne – in February and March.The volume, Pachinko Sunset, was written by Mr Gilbey an adjunct senior lecturer in English at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at CSU in Wagga Wagga."Writing and publishing poetry can be seen — financially-speaking — as a heroic task, fuelled primarily by passion and a fine sense of irony," Mr Gilbey said. "That's why the support of readers is so important!"My writing is both influenced by, and influences, my teaching English at Charles Sturt University. So whatever I'm teaching, from Beowulf through Paradise Lost to Patrick White and the literature of 'drugs and alcohol', for example the Beat poets of the USA, the 19th century hash poets from France, and the 'grunge' writers of urban Australia, it all affects my writing. I'm particularly influenced by confessional writers such as Robert Lowell and Sylvia Plath, and, among Australian poets, Kenneth Slessor, Les Murray, Kate Llewellyn, to name but three from many."Like many contemporary poets Mr Gilbey writes mainly a kind of 'free verse' in which 'the line is the unit of semantic meaning', rather than more traditional forms of rhyming, rhythmically regular stanzas.Pachinko Sunset is published by Island Press, one of the oldest surviving Australian poetry presses, and he is one of the five 2016 Island Press poets.The Pachinko Sunset launches and readings are:Sydney, from 2.30pm Saturday 27 February, to be launched by Dr Peter Kirkpatrick at the Friend in Hand Hotel (upstairs), 58 Cowper St, Glebe;Wagga Wagga, from 2pm Saturday 5 March, to be launched by Dr Lachlan Brown at the Wagga Wagga City Library, at the Civic Centre, corner of Baylis and Morrow Streets; andMelbourne, from 2pm Saturday 19 March, with a reading at the Dan O'Connell Hotel (The Home of Poets) 225 Canning Street, Carlton.