The Remedies

Katharine Towers

2017 Nominee

T. S. Eliot Prize

11 August 2016
9781509813056
64 pages

Synopsis

Katharine Towers' second collection is a book of small wonders. From a house drowning in roses to crickets on an August day, from Nerval's lobster to the surrealism of flower remedies, these poems explore the fragility of our relationship with the natural world. Towers also shows us what that relationship can aspire to be: each poem attunes us to another aspect of that world, and shows what strange connections might be revealed when we properly attend to it. The Remedies is a lyric, unforgettable collection which offers just the spiritual assuagement its title promises, and shows Towers emerging as a major poetic talent.
There is so much to praise about the writing: clarity, generosity and grace. There are no barriers between poem and reader. . .[Towers] writes with a marvellously gentle wit and a metrical intelligence. . .Quite how she manages the balancing act between entertainment and something that comes close to a prayer, that catches at your throat, is beyond me
Each of these short poems shines with soft, lyrical grace; she writes about birds, flowers and objects in clear, generous language that reaches out towards the reader, embracing and never pushing away.