Carcanet Press Poetry Publisher
Quote of the Day
British publishing always needs the supplement of such enterprises as Carcanet -- beautifully independent, skilfully managed, and by people with exceptional literary taste. It gives one heart that there are such people and such a press, and that they are too resourceful to succumb to the climate.
Sir Frank Kermode

Fathom

Jenny Lewis


Fathom by Jenny Lewis We think we know that space is silent,
only the words of astronauts reach us
as they stumble as if through water to place
flags while all the time light is escaping
faster than the fastest sand-storm.

            from 'They Want Our Breath'

The glowing, painterly poems of Jenny Lewis's first collection take soundings in the depths: of the layers of the pasts that create a life, of the sources of self and creativity, of the structures beneath the surface. It is a region of loss and of recovery, the realm where memories are stored and poetry is made. Ghosts appear. An unknown father, the 'young South Wales Borderer' who died when Lewis was a few months old, bequeaths an irrecoverable sense of incompleteness to his child. Poems about being sent away to a Masonic school, aged seven, reflect the shadow that loss casts, while a later sequence suggests how the missing pieces may be recovered from the depths. Fathom is an intense and textured collection that leads the reader from surfaces to the heart of things. In the end is a sense of affirmation, where self is made whole.

Title Information:

Categories: 21st Century, First Collections, Women
Imprint: OxfordPoets
ISBN-10: 1 903039 81 9
ISBN-13: 978 1 903039 81 6

Edition: 1st
Format: Paperback
Published: May 2007
Dimensions: 216x135x5mm
Pages: 64pp
Publisher: Carcanet Press

RRP: GBP£ 9.95

Discount: 10%
You Save: GBP£ 0.99

Price: GBP£ 8.96

Status: Available

Add to basket

Powered by WebGuild Muse The Good Web Guide Review of PN Review

We thank the Arts Council England for their support and assistance in this interactive Project.

Arts Council Logo
This website ©2000-2010 Carcanet Press Ltd