The Observances
Published on 30. April 2015
Book
Paperback/Softback
88 pages
978-1-906188-15-3 (ISBN)
Description
Winner of the 2016 Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry Prize for First Full Collection. Shortlisted for the 2017 Michael Murphy Memorial Poetry Prize. Shortlisted for the 2015 Costa Poetry Award. In the informal rituals of the tide remaking its tideline, of a painter absorbed in the act of painting or of an old couple greeting the night, the English poet Kate Miller sees and charts the creative process at work. As its title suggests, Miller's striking debut collection explores perception, the poet's eye and ear trained on distances that stretch beyond comfort zones. This is a book full of movement: even quiet reflections on home and family life are rarely still. Throughout the collection Miller dwells on the unfixed and restless image and shows herself as subject to it - to the difficult illusion of physical energy in sculpture, to the changeability of skies and the insistent rhythm and presence of the sea.
Reviews / Votes
'In collaboration with the waves'The Observer 'The quiet but intense sensibility of the author is integral to her poetic endeavour.'
Dr Leontia Flynn, Chair of Judges for the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry Prize for First Full Collection 'An ambitious and unusual debut.'
Judges for the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry Prize for First Full Collection
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Manchester
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 213 mm
Width: 135 mm
Thickness: 8 mm
Weight
113 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-906188-15-3 (9781906188153)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
The English poet, Kate Miller, grew up in Hampshire and now lives in London. In 2012 she completed her PhD while teaching Poetry (modern and historical) courses in the English department at Goldsmiths, University of London. She was awarded the Edwin Morgan International Poetry Prize in 2008 and has received a number of other awards. Selected for Best British Poetry 2011 (Salt) and again in 2013, her poems have recently been seen in Long Poem Magazine, The Reader, Poetry Review, Warwick Review, and the TLS where she also contributes an occasional column introducing a 'Poem of the Week'. She co-hosts readings and workshops for the Southwark Stanza of the Poetry Society and is often asked to read at London's poetry venues, bookshops and watering holes, including at the inaugural Open Weekend for The Guardian in 2012.
Content
1 WAVE ... CLOUDS PASSRegarding a Cloud 13Promise 14The Long Goodbye 15Lines To Convey Distance 16Longest Day 17Every Book is a Long Walk 18Couple in the Park with No Kids 19No Place 20The Hoopoes Have Come Home 21Against This Light 22all'antica 23On Lower Marsh, the Wallflowers 24Not Dormant Now, la Belle au bois 25Passage 262 LIFE CLASSPatient at Paimio 29Observances: The Chapels at Paleochora 30The Deposition 32From the Gods at Oz Adana, Pas de deux 33Pilgrimage 34The Apple Farmers' Calendar 35Girl Running Still 36Under the Hill 42Life Class 43And now you 44Isolated Vocal Track 453 VIGILSLandscape in Light Cast by the Moon 49Minding the Antiquarian Bookseller's House 50From the Sleeping Car 51God of Flame 53Colour Beginnings 54At the Root of the Wind is Strife 56Single Figures 58The Realism of Late Roman Portraits 59Solo 60Emergency Landing 614 ENTER THE SEAEnter the Sea 65As It Was 66At the Dew Pond, West Dale 67The Shift 68Of Vertigo 70Sallyport 71After the Ban 72The Sea is Midwife to the Shore 74House at Sea 75Nelson's Last Walk 76Sea View and Separation, Sole Bay 77Stay 80The Crossing 81Again (reprise) 82