Swimming with Jellyfish

Swimming with Jellyfish charts the manoeuvrings, struggles and joys of the complex roles we find ourselves in. The poems capture shared moments, even though our lives are constantly moving on. Memories include playing football on a windy Sunday morning, throwing a frisbee in the park and swimming with jellyfish and others. Although we sometimes encounter public figures such as Mick McManus, Ratko Mladic and Michael Collins, family is often at the centre of this assured, ambitious and always entertaining new collection. The sequence 'Storywaters' explores the experiences of both parents leading up to the birth of their child. Swimming with Jellyfish concludes with a glimpse of the difficult waters ahead. 'What comes through immediately and vividly is the anguish of loss, the strength of love, and that the poem is a repository for survival through its function as memory. I enjoyed the simple language which somehow dramatizes emotional complexity in many of these exciting poems.' - Daljit Nagra