Swell
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd
Published:30th Jan '25
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‘There is an honesty that is both heart-breaking and more hopeful than anything else I've read on this subject. She makes me weep and wonder in equal measure’ Hollie McNish
Eloquent and uncompromising, Swell explores the triumphs and hardships of the journey to new motherhood – through pregnancy, miscarriage, birth and beyond
In the consultation room I stared
at the purple flowers in their purple
vase and imagined my insides:
an ocean, a cave, a storm.
Maria Ferguson’s second poetry collection is a raw and powerful documentation of one woman’s experience of becoming a mother. Against a backdrop of the sounds and sensations of daily life, Ferguson observes her body changing and charts a course through loss and wilting house plants, towards recovery, empowerment and renewal.
Tender, direct and winningly witty, Swell navigates the complexities of family and domesticity, exploring the contending weight and levity felt in this thrillingly unfamiliar new chapter. Ferguson is a poet as alert to the absurd as to the shattering, and these are large-hearted poems, full of life and thought. Together, they invite the reader to join them in a search for self-acceptance, for freedom from shame, and for a path to stability in increasingly uncertain times.
Wry wit and honesty combine to make Swell a compelling narrative of marriage, pregnancy and motherhood. The world of mother and baby groups and “hashtag self-care” enables a rich vein of comic material, but it is emotional exposure and fragility... that makes Swellsuch a rewarding collection -- David Wheatley * Guardian *
I urge you to read this beautiful collection... The writing is eloquent and astute across many thoughts... Ferguson's poems offer a radical and contemporary portrayal of an experience as old as time -- Alice Ellerby * Juno Magazine *
A beautiful, powerful, profound collection of poems. There is an honesty that is both heart-breaking and more hopeful than anything else I've read on this subject. She makes me weep and wonder in equal measure -- Hollie McNish
Tender, lyrical, a family mise-en-scene, exploring the tiny narratives that write us. These poems are an umbilical, a feeding. Beautiful -- Joelle Taylor, author of C+nto
A feat. Both creatively and emotionally -- Caroline Bird
Maria Ferguson articulates the previously unsayable in these radical, tender poems. Swell gives voice to the full complexity of motherhood - the love next to the guilt, the ambivalence next to joy, even the desire to sometimes run away -- Kim Moore, author of All The Men I Never Married
These poems have an energy which is infectious. Reading them will make you feel free and fearless - Ferguson shows us how language can give new meaning to our tenderest moments -- Helen Mort
An extraordinary poetry collection. I found each page and turn of phrase unflinching, vivid and honest. Maria Ferguson is a brilliant poet, a dark and wry and witty poet, who always brings a quiet fury and compassion to the page -- Salena Godden
ISBN: 9781802064353
Dimensions: 197mm x 128mm x 9mm
Weight: 91g
96 pages