Overview
This collection of poetry touches on themes of family, childhood, memory, and loss. The title poem of the collection adopts the ocean as a metaphor for the realm of the collective unconscious where creativity lives, memories are stored, poetry is created, and where the dead struggle to visit. Poems such as “Survivors,” “Mother,” and “Boarder” cover the experience of being orphaned, while others address artistic obsession and objectification, asceticism and religious ecstasy, and the importance of grandmothers.
Reviews
"Jenny Lewis is descriptively fluent and adept at giving voice to states of longing. Her poems vary from the lyrical, daring syntax of 'Fathom' through to the richly textured 'Prospects', a schoolgirl discussion about death [which] is funny and well observed." —Frances Williams, Poetry Review
"An extraordinary piece—raw, moving and powerful." —Katie Mitchell, Director, Royal Shakespeare Company
"An authentic voice for women." —Sarah Bryant, Chapman's Review
"Movingly direct . . . an imaginative piece of writing with much to say to both women and men about how someone fights for survival with dignity and courage." —Jim Burns, Ambit
Author Biography
Jenny Lewis teaches poetry for Oxford University’s creative writing master of studies.