Ground Water

By Matthew Hollis

In this sparkling debut, Matthew Hollis immerses us in the undercurrents of our lives. Love and loss are buoyed by a house full of milk, an orchard underwater, the laws of walking on water. Rainwater, floodwater, flux -the liquid landscapes which shift relentlessly in Ground Water -threaten and comfort by turns. Matthew Hollis's poems are brimming with courage in adversity as well as the promise of renewal, culminating in a powerful sequence about a father's struggle with terminal illness. Ground Water is a startling first collection from a remarkable poet.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloodaxe Books
• Release date: Mar 27, 2014
• ISBN: 9781780371443

Book preview

MATTHEW HOLLIS

GROUND WATER

In this sparkling debut, Matthew Hollis immerses us in the undercurrents of our lives. Love and loss are buoyed by a house full of milk, an orchard underwater, the laws of walking on water. Rainwater, floodwater, flux – the liquid landscapes which shift relentlessly in Ground Water – threaten and comfort by turns. Matthew Hollis’s poems are brimming with courage in adversity as well as the promise of renewal, culminating in a powerful sequence about a father’s struggle with terminal illness. Ground Water is a startling first collection from a remarkable poet.

‘An impressive debut…the metaphorical language is finely judged, touching both the landscapes and the people crawling its surface with a shrewd but never less than sympathetic gaze’

–

D.J. TAYLOR

, The Guardian.

‘Matthew Hollis shows an impressive confidence in the promptings of the imagination and no desire at all to ingratiate himself. Craft, not attitude, is what counts. Poems are sometimes called quiet when really they’re inaudible. His are genuinely quiet, drawing in the ear to enjoy, for example, his artful rendering in slowed folk-song rhythm of the terror and excitement of floods’

–

SEAN O’BRIEN

, The Sunday Times.

Poetry Book Society Recommendation. Shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, Whitbread Poetry Award and Forward Prize for Best First Collection.

COVER DESIGN BY RON COSTLEY FROM

Rain Clouds over the Sea (c. 1832) by J.M.W. Turner

(GOUACHE & WATERCOLOUR ON PAPER)

© TATE, LONDON 2004

Matthew Hollis

GROUND WATER

for Dad

i.m.

Acknowledgements

My thanks are due to the editors of the following publications in which some of these poems first appeared: Chatter of Choughs (Signal Books, 2001), ibid, Island City (Broad Street Poetry, 1999), Love for Love (Morning Star/Polygon, 2000), The North, Oxford Magazine, Oxford Poetry, Parenthesis, PN Review, Poetry London, Poetry Review, Reactions 1 & 2 (Pen&inc, 2000 & 2001). In addition, some of these poems were first broadcast on BBC Radio. ‘The Fielder’ appeared in a private press edition from Clutag Press, 2002. ‘One Man Went to Mow’ was a prize winner in the National Poetry Competition, 1996.