Deep Field

by Philip Gross

In his nineties Philip Gross's father, a wartime refugee, began to lose his several languages, first to deafness, then profound aphasia. Deeply thought as well as deeply felt, these poems reach into that gulf to find him - through recovery of histories both spoken and unspoken as well as an excavation of the spoken word itself. Readers who admired Philip Gross's subtlety and range in his T.S. Eliot Prize-winning collection The Water Table will find those qualities brought to a new human urgency in the compelling sequences of Deep Field.A Poetry Society recommendation.

Genres: Poetry

64 pages, Paperback

First published February 28, 2012

Reviews

[Thomas Goddard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A poetry collection for a bit of a change today.

This one wrestles with an angel. Grief.

The death of the author's father, slowly. The memories. Experiences. Shared passions. Nostalgia turned into a walk over coals, where the memory itself is both agony and salve.

I love anything about grief. About love so strong that loss of the object of that love tears the heart into ragged pieces.

The collection really makes an art of words. They weave in and out of each other. Meaning overlaps. Sense is handed over to the senselessness of association. There's poems between the recurring images. When they arrive again you're given that same sense of mourning. An artificial sense that you'd recalled something without meaning to and it pangs.

It's great. So give this one a read.

[✰matthew✰ · Rating 4 out of 5]

i found this poetry collection really accessible and interesting, the themes are potentially emotive. i thought each poem, long or short was great to read and i enjoyed the whole, short collection. i appreciated the way the author used the page as a space and mixed things up a bit with that element. i also loved the cover image/design.

[Suzy Beaverstock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful, human and melancholy. An unusual and challenging set of poems and the theme of language, words and speech made for a fascinating journey. Highly recommend!

[Ruthie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extraordinary set of poems around interlocking themes. Simultaneously accessible and profound. Connections to daily life: such as, the asphasia poems and the Alzheimers art project I'm working on.
Or being reminded of the Deep Field Hubble poems whilst watching 'Gravity' -
"it turns out darkness is the hardest
thing to find."

[Chris Wardhaugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful collection. Sometimes with collections about personal loss I feel a little uncomfortable, voyeuristic even. Not in this case. There is tenderness and love, but also a balance with rhythm, form and images making things interesting poetically.