As with the readings from yesterday's poets, John Hartley Williams and Brian McCabe divide the hour long session into reading time, with no time allocated for questions. Again, I feel this is a lost opportunity for the audience to gain some insight into the methodology of the poets.

Who would have thought that poetry about maths could be so engaging? Not me, certainly; it's a good thing I didn't know about this before the event, otherwise I might have ducked into the Speigelbar for a glass of overpriced wine instead.

But after I get over the shock, I find myself drawn easily into McCabe's world of maths. From his childhood preoccupation with numbers to his re-imagining of the “One Man Went To Mow” learning poem as a vortex into a totalitarian state, I'm impressed with the poet's spare prose and charming reading style. We hear a story of Inca statistics, from the perspective of a thread runner - a young person employed to carry thread coded by knots and colour from post to post. I'm particularly taken with McCabe's imagining of the Roman numeral system as invented by a New Jersey gangster.

Williams dives in with a sexually graphic and imaginative poem. He attacks common, though relevant themes with originality, always surprising the audience with an unexpected or juxtaposing image. The multi-genre writer shows a wide spectrum of subject matter, which always returns to the essential parts of life; food, sex, fortune. Despite the themes, the poet skillfully avoids cliché and romance, and anything else to which James Kelman would object. Williams is a strong reader, who I suspect has honed his skill in public performances in Montmartre cafes over the years.

Both poets are brave and unapologetic; if it were a competition to see who has taken the biggest risk, McCabe would win, since sex usually draws a bigger crowd than maths. Both McCabe and Williams present an engaging, challenging selection of their work. It's just a shame we couldn't ask any questions.