A powerful and ambiguous body of water lies at the heart of these poems, with shoals and channels that change with the forty-foot tide. Even the name is fluid - from one shore, the Bristol Channel, from the other Mor Hafren, the Severn Sea. Philip Gross' meditations move with subtle steps between these shifting grounds and those of the man-made world, the aging body and that ever-present mystery, the self. Admirers of his work know each new collection is a new stage; this one marks a crossing into a new questioning, new clarity and depth.
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Philip Gross knows how to make silence and suggestion resonate...he touches an alien, intractable dimension ...Gross's poems are about lost bearings and blurred frontiers. --Terry Eagleton, Independent on Sunday
Haunting, vividly imagined poems, whose fierce intelligence is gentled by the sonorous grace of the language…A considerable poetic talent offers us an elegant and subtle re-evaluation of the modern world. --Sarah Crown, Guardian
Some of the poems are marvellous, not because they are brave about their subject, not even because of the technique on display, but because they are electrifyingly well observed and beautifully written. --David Morley, Poetry Review
Haunting, vividly imagined poems, whose fierce intelligence is gentled by the sonorous grace of the language…A considerable poetic talent offers us an elegant and subtle re-evaluation of the modern world. --Sarah Crown, Guardian
Some of the poems are marvellous, not because they are brave about their subject, not even because of the technique on display, but because they are electrifyingly well observed and beautifully written. --David Morley, Poetry Review
About the Author
Philip Gross is Professor of Creative Writing at Glamorgan University. He has published six books with Bloodaxe, including The Water Table (2009), The Egg of Zero (2006), Mappa Mundi (2003) and Changes of Address: Poems 1980-1998 (2001), his selection from earlier books including The Ice Factory, Cat's Whisker, The Son of the Duke of Nowhere, I.D. and The Wasting Game. He is also the author of ten highly-praised novels for young people. Born in Cornwall, he lived in Bristol and Bath for many years, and now lives in Penarth in South Wales.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By Kate
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Brilliance in poetry is no easy feat. Here are poems with edge and a distinctive voice, individual and appealing. There are poems with a polished, focused feel. They reveal and thrive upon a confidence the poet has developed over several worthy collections. Gross writes with energy, verve, a true love for language and the interruptions the extraordinary came make into the seemingly mundane. There are quiet poems and poems with a more abstract energy. This collection really needs to be read over time and re-read. Reflect and return. The well-crafted longer sequences stand out for me, as poetry that will always offer something to a reader over time. I prefer the poems with a present human insight, rather than those directly responding to a landscape, for example. If at times this books feels just a little too taut, a little honed, then perhaps the next collection will have a wider focus and be ever more revealing?
Highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Is this a high water mark for Philip Gross? Winning the T S Eliot prize is no mean feat. And you can see why it appealed to the judges. Gross's work is well crafted, intriguing and always with that capacity to take you by surprise. If you enjoyed his last collection, 'The Egg of Zero' you'll take to this one as a duck to water.
'The Water Table' is a themed collection based around the landscapes/seascapes of the Bristol Channel (Gross now lives in Penarth). It's all about blurred boundaries. Between sea and land. Between sea and sky. And liminal places in our own reactions, attitudes and relationships. A series of vignettes, 'Betweenland' I-X, punctuate the collection, expanding the theme. There are echoes from earlier collections - 'Yalta 1945' - a concrete poem in the shape of an 'Amphora' and a final, valedictory, rhyming 'Severn Song.'
It's a subtle collection that's growing on me. It ebbs and flows, shifts, somehow doesn't quite stay still.
'The Water Table' is a themed collection based around the landscapes/seascapes of the Bristol Channel (Gross now lives in Penarth). It's all about blurred boundaries. Between sea and land. Between sea and sky. And liminal places in our own reactions, attitudes and relationships. A series of vignettes, 'Betweenland' I-X, punctuate the collection, expanding the theme. There are echoes from earlier collections - 'Yalta 1945' - a concrete poem in the shape of an 'Amphora' and a final, valedictory, rhyming 'Severn Song.'
It's a subtle collection that's growing on me. It ebbs and flows, shifts, somehow doesn't quite stay still.
By Sioux
Format:Paperback
THE WATER TABLE by Philip Gross
Loved the language and fluidity of `Poetic Form' used in `The Water Table'.
Philip Gross succeeds in:-
* Reflecting the moods and beauty of `The Seven Estuary'.
* Whilst simultaneously exploring `the journey through time of humanity'. including concerns for our future and that of planet earth.
* He invites the reader into inner reflections (of mind, body and spirit); therefore allowing opportunity to bridge that gap from Poetry and into deeper meditation.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is searching for an interesting and reflective read
Loved the language and fluidity of `Poetic Form' used in `The Water Table'.
Philip Gross succeeds in:-
* Reflecting the moods and beauty of `The Seven Estuary'.
* Whilst simultaneously exploring `the journey through time of humanity'. including concerns for our future and that of planet earth.
* He invites the reader into inner reflections (of mind, body and spirit); therefore allowing opportunity to bridge that gap from Poetry and into deeper meditation.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is searching for an interesting and reflective read
Format:Paperback
Not a bad little poetry collection, centring around the Severn estuary and its tidal energies and entropies, a book full of weight and movement, of slithery stuff and sticky stuff, a very tangible, tactile, oozy sort of book. Well muddy. Which puts me in mind, more often than not, of Mr Heaney, with his love of touchableness and gravity. On the downside, the poems can have an over-homogenized feel - they're all a bit too similar to each other, and Gross, as so often, gives a sense of one overburdened by a sense of duty and responsibility as a poet. It is good to see his language more under control than in other books (I mean, especially, his penchant for suddenly blurting onomatopaeic words) at the same time one would like a sense that his language is bringing up more surprising riches from the muddy margins he explores here, and not just the usual, dutiful nods to identity, marginality, history etc. He needed to get down and roll in it a bit more, I felt. Not a bad little poetry collection though, as poetry collections go.
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