The Navigators

by Matthew Clegg

Matthew Clegg’s second full-length collection explores the portals that connect time and place, and meditates on the element of water, as it moves through both. The book opens with rain falling in the Lake District, flowing to the South Yorkshire waterways, before arriving at the North Sea. The poems draw on the dynamic physical geography of Cumbria and the East Yorkshire coast and on the life (and afterlife) of the canals of Leeds and Mexborough. Versions of Apollonius, Aristophanes and Homer introduce an extra-temporal dimension, most apparent in the closing sequence of the collection, where these mythical, personal and historical threads are finally woven into one fugue-like movement. The Navigators is an affirmation of the reflection and regeneration that we find where waters meet and mingle; these literal and metaphorical thresholds offer both expedition and epiphany.

128 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2015

Reviews

[Becky]

This book of poetry really spoke to me, there was so much that I connected with and the connection between water, travelling, and time was beautifully realised