What do you think?
Rate this book
Oscillations
"And suddenly the plagues are the most interesting parts of a city’s history."
So begins poet Kate Fox's distinctive new collection The Oscillations as it explores distance and isolation in the age of the pandemic, refracted through the lenses of neurodiversity and trauma in poems that are bold, often frank and funny but also multifarious, dazzling and open-hearted in their self-discoveries.
Fox's poetry explores difference and community, silence and communication, danger and belonging - and a world that has been distinctly broken into a 'before' and 'after' by the pandemic. Throughout, a strong voice sings of what it means to be many things at once - autistic, creative, northern, a woman. Fox measures not only distances, social or otherwise, but how we breach them, and what the view might be from beyond them.
So begins poet Kate Fox's distinctive new collection The Oscillations as it explores distance and isolation in the age of the pandemic, refracted through the lenses of neurodiversity and trauma in poems that are bold, often frank and funny but also multifarious, dazzling and open-hearted in their self-discoveries.
Fox's poetry explores difference and community, silence and communication, danger and belonging - and a world that has been distinctly broken into a 'before' and 'after' by the pandemic. Throughout, a strong voice sings of what it means to be many things at once - autistic, creative, northern, a woman. Fox measures not only distances, social or otherwise, but how we breach them, and what the view might be from beyond them.
- GenresPoetry
72 pages, Paperback
Published February 18, 2021
1 person is currently reading
92 people want to read
About the author
Kate Fox
8 books1 followerLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Kate Fox is a poet based in Northern England who has made two comedy series for Radio 4 and written and performed numerous broadcast poetry commissions as a regular on Radio 3’s The Verb and Radio 4’s Saturday Live. She won the Andrew Waterhouse Award for poetry from New Writing North in 2006. Her publications include We Are Not Stone (Ek Zuban, 2006), Fox Populi (Smokestack, 2013) and Chronotopia (Burning Eye Books, 2017). She completed a PhD in performance in 2017 from the University of Leeds, researching Northernness and comedy. She loves swimming outside, spaniels, Doctor Who and big skies.
Kate Fox is a poet based in Northern England who has made two comedy series for Radio 4 and written and performed numerous broadcast poetry commissions as a regular on Radio 3’s The Verb and Radio 4’s Saturday Live. She won the Andrew Waterhouse Award for poetry from New Writing North in 2006. Her publications include We Are Not Stone (Ek Zuban, 2006), Fox Populi (Smokestack, 2013) and Chronotopia (Burning Eye Books, 2017). She completed a PhD in performance in 2017 from the University of Leeds, researching Northernness and comedy. She loves swimming outside, spaniels, Doctor Who and big skies.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 9, 2021
The first section, “After,” responds to the events of 2020. Six of its poems were part of a “Twelve Days of Lockdown” commission. Fox remembers how sinister a cougher at a public event felt on 13th March and remarks on how quickly social distancing came to feel like the norm, though hikes and wild swimming helped her to retain a sense of possibility. I especially liked “Pharmacopoeia,” which opens the collection and looks back to the Black Death that hit Amsterdam in 1635 – “suddenly the plagues / are the most interesting parts / of a city’s history.” “Returns” plots her next trip to a bookshop (“The plague books won’t be in yet, / but the dystopia section will be well stocked … I spend fifty pounds I no longer had last time, will spend another fifty next. / Feeling I’m preserving an ecology, a sort of home.”), while “The Funerals” wryly sings the glories of a spring the deceased didn’t get to see.
The second section, “Before,” is more wide-ranging, responding to artworks, historical events, family situations, and more. Fox has been vocal about her ASD, which is the subject of “What Could Be Called Communication,” about the habits of the neurodivergent that you might recognize. I also liked “The Fruits,” which narrates the end of a pregnancy, and the closing poem, “Emergency” (“between us, / sometimes despite us / love spreads like a satellite signal, / like sea foam, / like spilt coffee on a counter top, / like home.”). That was one of the few places in the whole book where the language struck me (alliteration and an end-rhyme); elsewhere, the themes were more notable than the techniques.
The second section, “Before,” is more wide-ranging, responding to artworks, historical events, family situations, and more. Fox has been vocal about her ASD, which is the subject of “What Could Be Called Communication,” about the habits of the neurodivergent that you might recognize. I also liked “The Fruits,” which narrates the end of a pregnancy, and the closing poem, “Emergency” (“between us, / sometimes despite us / love spreads like a satellite signal, / like sea foam, / like spilt coffee on a counter top, / like home.”). That was one of the few places in the whole book where the language struck me (alliteration and an end-rhyme); elsewhere, the themes were more notable than the techniques.
July 15, 2021
Read via Scribd!
It is not often finding a poetry collection written by an autistic author. However, with The Oscillations, I truly did get it. As an autistic reader and poet myself, Kate's writing stood out and her expressions/thoughts came across so genuine. It is not easy (and slightly triggering) to write content about last year's experiences with the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic. A must-read.
L I N K S:
My Wishlist-https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/...
Twitter- www.Twitter.com/AllyBookKnot
Ko-Fi-https://ko-fi.com/alicemtb44
Affiliate Link for Waterstones-http://www.awin1.com/cread.php?awinmi...
Affiliate Link for Book Depository-https://www.awin1.com/cread.php?awinm...
Affiliate Link for Blackwells UK-https://www.blackwells.co.uk/?a_aid=A...
It is not often finding a poetry collection written by an autistic author. However, with The Oscillations, I truly did get it. As an autistic reader and poet myself, Kate's writing stood out and her expressions/thoughts came across so genuine. It is not easy (and slightly triggering) to write content about last year's experiences with the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic. A must-read.
L I N K S:
My Wishlist-https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/...
Twitter- www.Twitter.com/AllyBookKnot
Ko-Fi-https://ko-fi.com/alicemtb44
Affiliate Link for Waterstones-http://www.awin1.com/cread.php?awinmi...
Affiliate Link for Book Depository-https://www.awin1.com/cread.php?awinm...
Affiliate Link for Blackwells UK-https://www.blackwells.co.uk/?a_aid=A...
February 3, 2024
The Oscillations is on my wavelength. For the most part.
I picked this collection up because I want to sample the work of a more contemporary poet. Thankfully I soon gelled with Fox's style which expresses familiar domestic experiences through elegant turns of phrase and neurodivergent insight.
Suffice to say I was fascinated by Fox writing so poetically about her autistic viewpoint on a world that often doesn't make sense. Not only this, part of this collection was written during the 2020 lockdown, where the world was even stranger than usual. These 'Before' verses touched me more than the 'After' ones.
As often happens with collections I failed to connect with more poems than I would have liked. Once favourites have been established, it frustrates me when lightning doesn't strike again. Nevertheless that just means there is a broad variety here and I was impressed with Fox's range. There are cosy poems and funny poems but there are also ones with bite and plenty of regret.
The Oscillations channels all kinds of passion, both prosaically and esoterically. If you are intrigued by Fox's outlook, I would give this book a go.
Notable Poems
• Returns - a poem about the anxiety felt while bringing books back to the library during COVID restrictions.
• Wet - a verse sharing different perspectives on the moment that paint becomes dry, told with wonder.
• What Could Be Called Communication - a poem that reviews the bond between neurodivergents.
I picked this collection up because I want to sample the work of a more contemporary poet. Thankfully I soon gelled with Fox's style which expresses familiar domestic experiences through elegant turns of phrase and neurodivergent insight.
Suffice to say I was fascinated by Fox writing so poetically about her autistic viewpoint on a world that often doesn't make sense. Not only this, part of this collection was written during the 2020 lockdown, where the world was even stranger than usual. These 'Before' verses touched me more than the 'After' ones.
As often happens with collections I failed to connect with more poems than I would have liked. Once favourites have been established, it frustrates me when lightning doesn't strike again. Nevertheless that just means there is a broad variety here and I was impressed with Fox's range. There are cosy poems and funny poems but there are also ones with bite and plenty of regret.
The Oscillations channels all kinds of passion, both prosaically and esoterically. If you are intrigued by Fox's outlook, I would give this book a go.
Notable Poems
• Returns - a poem about the anxiety felt while bringing books back to the library during COVID restrictions.
• Wet - a verse sharing different perspectives on the moment that paint becomes dry, told with wonder.
• What Could Be Called Communication - a poem that reviews the bond between neurodivergents.
August 25, 2021
Bit of an uneven collection but there were several poems I loved so much that made up for the ones I didn't like that much.
September 10, 2021
A varied collection of contemporary p0etry. This has plenty of references to Covid and you do wonder in twenty odd years from now on looking back how we would view it.
In two sections Before and After it's as if this is before and after the pandemic yet the first poem involves a historical plague.
At times some of the language felt child like yet Fox conjures up some wonderful imagery making the reader think through out.
In two sections Before and After it's as if this is before and after the pandemic yet the first poem involves a historical plague.
At times some of the language felt child like yet Fox conjures up some wonderful imagery making the reader think through out.
March 8, 2022
I recently attended a poetry reading at Northern stage where Kate Fox was reading from her work so it was nice to be able to hear her voice in my head when I read these poems. Written during lockdown there were many themes that resonated with me and she lives in the North East so the landscapes she described whilst sea swimming for example were very familiar.
November 13, 2021
I love so much about this collection, for example:
"You will find us dhilal al hidaya
(sheltering from the heat in the shadows), consoling ourselves with the knowledge
that attitudes shift slowly
but we all shit and die."
"You will find us dhilal al hidaya
(sheltering from the heat in the shadows), consoling ourselves with the knowledge
that attitudes shift slowly
but we all shit and die."
November 10, 2022
3.5 stars
December 11, 2022
I understand peoples’ thoughts on the collection being disjointed structurally but I really enjoyed Fox’s style. The last poem is by far my favourite and absolutely beautiful ♥️
October 25, 2023
Good collection of poems that were written just before and after lockdowns that help capture what life really felt like at the time. Some misses, but overall worth reading.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews