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 new poet. Shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award (the first time for a poetry book), Whitbread Poetry Award and Forward Prize for Best First Collection. Poetry Book Society Recommendation.

Genres: Poetry

61 pages, Paperback

First published July 15, 2004

Reviews

[Isa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some I really liked, some I missed. Didn't all feel like it hung together in the same collection for me.

Some things I noted down:

'like time given back, offered again; // as if all the words they failed to say // were spilled out on the quay and claimed // like undelivered letter finding home; // as if // we'd tapped our own lost tongue' - The Orchard Underwater

'We came with cases packed full of ourselves' - Clerance

'Few of us will touch the landscape in that way' - The Fielder

The River Drivers - liked the last stanza

'What I see in you I cannot live to, // too much the perfect picture of myself. // So I will leave, and leave you // the fragments of the me I seem' - In you more than you

'a causeway made // of temporality and water's Isotasy

'This much is truth, in principle at least.' - Isotasy

"harwonder', a tern of no strict definition, // but intimately ours - // musical, made up of us; // where language was a kind of touch, a pull' - Harwonder

'This day was spinning king before you stirred' - Election

'the rain in our mouth, // where we leave // language behind' - Passing Place

One - I liked

[Carla · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was lovely! i picked it up by chance and i really enjoyed it. it brings up some really lovely imaginery, and is generally very tender. the last chunk is probably the heaviest and most impactful, but i really enjoyed the lighter, dreamier vibe of the first section as well. here are two of my favorite poem bits:

"not even the leaves
can lay down with such gentleness
or be touched so lightly as by your touch

in which i am, very simply, uncurling
as a leaf uncurls in first spring, or
folded, unfolds in your opening palm"

-

"(...) because
you are my fingertips, my perfect sight,
an acre of wheat in a field of stone."