Swallow by Claire Potter

JUDGES' COMMENTS

This is a terrific debut collection. It is unapologetically difficult, erudite and brave, especially at a time when younger writers are being urged to be more lyrical, humorous and accessible. The work is exploratory, layered, and engages with oddly different writers as well as family and friends. Fragmentary and assured, a fresh intellect results in an intriguing book.

Swallow is Potter’s first collection after two chapbooks and her work continues to engage with her predecessors who include writers like Jean Genet, Louis Zukofsky and AD Hope. In Potter’s poem ‘1 As Regarding Rhythm' we begin with an AD Hope quote that gracefully moves to the projectivist breathing notion of Charles Olson. The poem shifts the mind towards to the 'outdoors' and then incorporates various birds, including the title's 'swallow', as metaphors in an examination of what poetry is to Potter. Her work is unashamedly complex with its mysterious phrases, dense enquiries and linguistic plays. She gently demands that the reader engage with expected poetic approaches to nature that enliven us emotionally and intellectually.