Flood

Clare Shaw

• Publisher: Bloodaxe Books
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9781780374208
• eBook ISBN:
  9781780374215
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Poetry
• Index: Literature

The territory of Clare Shaw's third collection isn't one she chose herself, but one which chose her: the flooded valley and the ruined home. The 2015 floods in Britain left whole swathes of the country submerged, including her home town. Flood offers an eye-witness account of those events, from rainfall to rescue, but ripples out from there. Intimately interwoven with the breakdown of a relationship, flooding serves as a powerful metaphor for wider experiences of loss, destruction and recovery. Testifying equally to the forces that destroy us and save us, flood runs through the book in different forms – bereavement and trauma, the Savile scandal, life in an asylum. Yet ultimately, this is a story of one life as it is unravelled and rebuilt, written from the heart and from the North, in a language as dangerous and sustaining as water.

CONTENTS

1. Title Page
2. Dedication
3. Acknowledgements
   
4. What do I know
5. Who knows what it’s like
6. Instructions for coping in terrible times
7. For the journey.
8. Late Afternoon, Allan Bank
9. Water as Religion
10. And still I don’t know
11. Lovehearts
12. Double
13. Hydrology
14. Weather warning
15. How I heard
16. Roads and paths covered; flash flooding on steeper slopes
17. Flood Town
18. Why did the sand blush?
19. Grabbed.
20. Rainhill Psychiatric Hospital 1992
21. This is a man.
22. For the love of
23. Just look
24. Grim
25. Who said
26. Telling Tales
27. Nothing I’m afraid to write except for words
28. My father was no ordinary man
29. My mother was a verified miracle.
30. Low lying regions inundated. Large objects begin to float
31. Divorce
32. Rescue effort
33. Measures of Goodness
34. This is for Stanley and Da...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Description
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Acknowledgements
• Contents
• What do I know
• Who knows what it’s like
• Instructions for coping in terrible times
• For the journey
• Late Afternoon, Allan Bank
• Water as Religion
• And still I don’t know
• Lovehearts
• Double
• Hydrology
• Weather warning
• How I heard
• Roads and paths covered; flash flooding on steeper slopes
• Flood Town
• Why did the sand blush?
• Grabbed
• Rainhill Psychiatric Hospital 1992
• This is a man
• For the love of
• Just look
• Grim
• Who said
• Telling Tales
• Nothing I’m afraid to write except for words
• My father was no ordinary man
• My mother was a verified miracle
• Low lying regions inundated. Large objects begin to float
• Divorce
• Rescue effort
• Measures of Goodness
• This is for Stanley and Dan
• Major structures destroyed; terrain significantly altered
• A love song to punctuation
• Catastrophic devastation; damage complete
• Love is not
• Pinnacle Ridge
• The Cruellest Month
• I don’t remember anything about hydrangeas
• Open Door Policy
• I came back
• The Lost King of Calderdale
• I sing for the man on the bus
• Flood as Redemption
• Teaching Your Daughter to Swim
• Since I woke up as a spider
• I woz ere
• About the Author
• Copyright