This collections starts off with a great line: "The sea comes in like nothing but the sea" and the poem that follows is an ok poem. The problem is that that ok poem is the best poem in the book. And it is a problem when an "ok poem" is the best poem you've got. Now, don't get me wrong, Maxwell can write a good poem. I've heard him read from his next collection, and it is some good work. But the poems in _The Nerve_ are weak and not very spectacular. They are too quiet for lack of a better word. Maxwell can do better than this. Let's just hope he does.