Tilt

by Jean Sprackland

Jean Sprackland's third collection describes a world in free-fall. Chaos and calamity are at our shoulder, in the shape of fire and flood, ice-storm and hurricane; trains stand still, zoos are abandoned, migrating birds lose their way - all surfaces are unreliable, all territories unmapped. These are poems that explore the ambivalence and dark unease of slippage and collapse, but they also carry a powerful sense of the miraculous made manifest amongst the the mating of natterjack toads, ice on the beach ('dream stuff, with its own internal acoustic') or 'the fund of life' in a used contraceptive. Bracken may run wild across the planet 'waiting for the moment/to pounce on the accident/of the discarded match' but there are also the significant wonders of children and the natural beauty of the world they've inherited. Tilt is a collection of raw, distressed and beautiful poems, a hymn to the remarkable survival of things in the face of threat - for every degradation an epiphany, for every drowning a birth.

Genres: Poetry

68 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 4, 2007

About the author

Jean Sprackland is a poet and writer. She is the winner of the Costa Poetry Award in 2008, and the Portico Prize for Non-Fiction in 2012. Her books have also been shortlisted for the Forward Prize, the TS Eliot Prize and the Whitbread Award.

Jean is Reader in Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University.

She is a trustee of the Poetry Archive, the world’s premier online collection of recordings of poets reading their work.

Jean has worked as a consultant and project manager for organisations involved with literature and education. She has held residencies in schools and universities, and is a tutor for the Arvon Foundation.

She lives in London.

Reviews

[JJ Aitken · Rating 5 out of 5]

The collection that won her the Costa prize for poetry was predictable in one sense only. It was perfect. To pick up a collection of poetry and relish each and every one is so rare. This is a great place to start with a new poet or as a fresh segue into contemporary poetry.

[Konstantin R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

[rating = A]
One of my: Best Books of the Year (for 2024)

Well if the cover doesn't grab your attention, the words will. Sprackland isn't fussy. She's a modern William Carlos Williams that pays attention to the everyday and makes it sort of magical. Her poems are easy to read and hold a beauty of care and consideration. Of course, not all the poems are obvious right off the bat; several readings always allow for further contemplation. The "Miracles" sequence is fantastic, meshing biblical ideas and readings with contemporary life. Like Louis Gluck's "The Wild Iris," Sprackland dives into her surroundings, though they aren't limited to the natural world of flora and fauna (though are not humans part of the latter technically as well...?). Well, I read this collection in utter rapture. I was transported and I was allowed to see into someone's life and, not learn exactly, but experience and try to understand it and, thus, better look at my own.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

"When I walked away after being with him
I turned the world with my feet."

Chaos and calamity captured in individual objects.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed grappling with Sprackland's intense reflections on her life; visceral & drenched with fluid emotions,a world tilted from its axis. New poetry must be challenging to compensate for so much old tilth produced by horny-handed & corn-fed poet-ploughmen & ploughwomen(?)! Something must grow from the seeded furrows that can be satisfyingly harvested by the hungry readers! A festival of good food can be devoured in this slim volume!

[Ruth Brumby · Rating 4 out of 5]

The endings don't work as well as the rest of the poems. They try to work like short story endings but it often doesn't quite ring right.
Re=reading I enjoyed these more and didn't feel the same about the endings. I think they would be worth re-reading again.
Lots about death!

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't love this collection as much as Sleeping Keys - which is why it has four stars and not five, however there are a few stunning poems in here.

[Faithly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read it in one sitting. It was alright