SWIMMER IN THE DUST
For me, The Mirror Hurlers was one of 2019's best books of poetry. Ross Gillett's latest book, Swimmer in the Dust, builds upon this rich legacy—displaying a mastery of tone and tonal drift, of nuance and ambiguity. His capacity to imbue the inanimate with life—and believably so—often astonishes. Gillett is a poet (should I say, a philosopher-poet?), possessed of a receptivity, an openness to difference; and the possessor of extraordinary emotional intelligence.
Gillett works largely with everyday objects and events, but, crucially, he will describe them from an unexpected vantage point—as exemplified by the windows in "Ash Wednesday". A small number will be repeated. Clouds, for instance, appear quite regularly in Swimmer in the Dust (as they did in The Mirror Hurlers); and with each reappearance we are impelled to seek out the previous "cloud", or skim the following pages in search of other iterations. Here we find these doublings, triplings, have accrued further connotations that complement or problematise the original image.
What then of the accumulations of threat? Ours is an unarguably uncertain time, and Gillett's poems cannot help but speak of it: the losing of light; the glass-bending flames; a sand and dust, carried by menacing winds, unstoppable it would seem by any door, filling the window's ledge? These shorelines, of which there are many, unable to erase the "dark beach" of the narrator's imaginings? But Swimmer in the Dust (that aptly named book) also teaches us how another reading, a change in point-of-view, an unthought-of perspective, may restore that which we had thought lost: we learn of other lines that can lead us through a child's game; that can help us snare a cloud and, weightless with old age, haul ourselves up on it.
Ross Gillett's poetic vision continues to grow.
John A Scott
The eponymous swimmer in the dust appears at almost the exact midpoint of this delicate and thoughtful collection (Swimmer in the Dust), providing a startling fulcrum for the arc of these poems. The collection opens with a set of double-glazed windows, blasted by bushfire before they could even be installed, gazing only at “vistas of soil”. The poems move through a series of landscapes, both internal and external, experiencing the elements in a quietly observant, and sometimes poignant, voice. We are eventually led up into the clouds, where we are invited to contemplate what we have learned about ourselves. A wonderful, subtle contribution to Australian poetry.
Debi Hamilton
Whether Ross Gillett considers his memories of youth, the impact of a storm overhead, the intertwining of myth and personal passion, or the materials of poetic language, he writes poems of wit, emotional sincerity, and intellectual probity.
Professor Richard Perry
One of the many good things in Swimmer in the Dust is the way the Southern Ocean blurs, at times, with the Aegean and the Atlantic. This is a very oceanic book.
Ian Crittenden
For me, The Mirror Hurlers was one of 2019's best books of poetry. Ross Gillett's latest book, Swimmer in the Dust, builds upon this rich legacy—displaying a mastery of tone and tonal drift, of nuance and ambiguity. His capacity to imbue the inanimate with life—and believably so—often astonishes. Gillett is a poet (should I say, a philosopher-poet?), possessed of a receptivity, an openness to difference; and the possessor of extraordinary emotional intelligence.
Gillett works largely with everyday objects and events, but, crucially, he will describe them from an unexpected vantage point—as exemplified by the windows in "Ash Wednesday". A small number will be repeated. Clouds, for instance, appear quite regularly in Swimmer in the Dust (as they did in The Mirror Hurlers); and with each reappearance we are impelled to seek out the previous "cloud", or skim the following pages in search of other iterations. Here we find these doublings, triplings, have accrued further connotations that complement or problematise the original image.
What then of the accumulations of threat? Ours is an unarguably uncertain time, and Gillett's poems cannot help but speak of it: the losing of light; the glass-bending flames; a sand and dust, carried by menacing winds, unstoppable it would seem by any door, filling the window's ledge? These shorelines, of which there are many, unable to erase the "dark beach" of the narrator's imaginings? But Swimmer in the Dust (that aptly named book) also teaches us how another reading, a change in point-of-view, an unthought-of perspective, may restore that which we had thought lost: we learn of other lines that can lead us through a child's game; that can help us snare a cloud and, weightless with old age, haul ourselves up on it.
Ross Gillett's poetic vision continues to grow.
John A Scott
The eponymous swimmer in the dust appears at almost the exact midpoint of this delicate and thoughtful collection (Swimmer in the Dust), providing a startling fulcrum for the arc of these poems. The collection opens with a set of double-glazed windows, blasted by bushfire before they could even be installed, gazing only at “vistas of soil”. The poems move through a series of landscapes, both internal and external, experiencing the elements in a quietly observant, and sometimes poignant, voice. We are eventually led up into the clouds, where we are invited to contemplate what we have learned about ourselves. A wonderful, subtle contribution to Australian poetry.
Debi Hamilton
Whether Ross Gillett considers his memories of youth, the impact of a storm overhead, the intertwining of myth and personal passion, or the materials of poetic language, he writes poems of wit, emotional sincerity, and intellectual probity.
Professor Richard Perry
One of the many good things in Swimmer in the Dust is the way the Southern Ocean blurs, at times, with the Aegean and the Atlantic. This is a very oceanic book.
Ian Crittenden
THE MIRROR HURLERS
Its (The Mirror Hurlers’) opening and closing sections are packed with poems that simultaneously challenge and entertain and do indeed have the three qualities claimed for them in the back-cover blurb: ‘intensity, complexity and clarity’…
… “Istan and Other Places” (is) an eight page quest poem set mainly in Southern Spain. It has a striking, somewhat surreal geography and a powerful sense of history.
Geoff Page
These are poems that take us to the limit. Gillett’s poetry embraces the elements and our own frailty as we intersect with the world and each other. Whether set in a boy’s bedroom or a blustery beach, this poetry allows us to be there, attuned to sounds and textures and the great movements of the human heart.
E. A. Gleeson
Gillett is undoubtedly among our finest poets. He’s been out in the squall, down to the river and along the coastal path, his head tilted to the world at an epic, elegiac angle. It’s a rare poet who can craft such a gaze into work so fluent and finely felt. The Mirror Hurlers is a hand-rail on a long-span bridge, one that leads high into the weather, delivering you to the other side.
Nathan Curnow
Its (The Mirror Hurlers’) opening and closing sections are packed with poems that simultaneously challenge and entertain and do indeed have the three qualities claimed for them in the back-cover blurb: ‘intensity, complexity and clarity’…
… “Istan and Other Places” (is) an eight page quest poem set mainly in Southern Spain. It has a striking, somewhat surreal geography and a powerful sense of history.
Geoff Page
These are poems that take us to the limit. Gillett’s poetry embraces the elements and our own frailty as we intersect with the world and each other. Whether set in a boy’s bedroom or a blustery beach, this poetry allows us to be there, attuned to sounds and textures and the great movements of the human heart.
E. A. Gleeson
Gillett is undoubtedly among our finest poets. He’s been out in the squall, down to the river and along the coastal path, his head tilted to the world at an epic, elegiac angle. It’s a rare poet who can craft such a gaze into work so fluent and finely felt. The Mirror Hurlers is a hand-rail on a long-span bridge, one that leads high into the weather, delivering you to the other side.
Nathan Curnow
THE SEA FACTORY
“This is an intelligent, tight and positive poetry…… If you get the chance to see Gillett perform, don’t miss him.”
Tim Metcalf
“We go to poetry hoping to find phrases, thoughts and music that will become the fixed points by which we steer our lives. Ross Gillett’s poems are just that….”
Kevin Brophy
“…poems that are clear-eyed, poignant and memorable……The fatherhood poems, in particular, will become classics.”
Ross Donlon
“This is an intelligent, tight and positive poetry…… If you get the chance to see Gillett perform, don’t miss him.”
Tim Metcalf
“We go to poetry hoping to find phrases, thoughts and music that will become the fixed points by which we steer our lives. Ross Gillett’s poems are just that….”
Kevin Brophy
“…poems that are clear-eyed, poignant and memorable……The fatherhood poems, in particular, will become classics.”
Ross Donlon
OTHER
When Ross Gillett leads a workshop I always leave with a fresh view of the possibility of poetry. Ross is an experienced professional who genuinely loves the poetic voice and is dedicated to broadening our views of what poetry can be and do. I highly recommend his style, empathy, and the depth of understanding he brings to the workshop situation. I was impressed, from the first workshop I attended, with the generosity and acuity with which he advised me regarding the poem I offered for workshopping.
In my experience he is also a powerful and sensitive manuscript assessor, bringing the same qualities to that role as he does to the workshops.
Jennie Fraine
Poet & Memoirist
Being mentored by Ross Gillett has been a major turning point in my poetry development. His insights into my work have enabled me to read, reflect and change, if necessary, my poems without losing my ‘voice’ or tone, or the essence of the pieces. A rare skill indeed, and one for which I am indebted.
Working with Ross has also resulted in a collection of my poems being accepted for publication.
Diana Pearce
Thanks to… Ross Gillett for his sharp editing.
Ed Wright (Gas Deities)
Thanks to… valued ed. Ross Gillett
Meredith Wattison (The Munchian O)
I’m particularly grateful to Ross Gillett… (for) astute editorial suggestions; few poems here have nor benefited from them.
Isi Unikowski (Kintsugi)
…thank you for your valuable editorial input
Mark Mahemoff (Trojan Gifts)
(Thanks)… to Ross Gillett, for sensitive, incisive editing.
Gaylene Carbis (I Have Decided To Remain Vertical)
One of the most memorable poems in all the glittering array offered by both books (The Best Australian Poetry 2005, UQP, and The Best Australian Poems 2005, Black Inc) is Ross Gillett’s poem, “Good Drying Day” ― about a small child helping a mother hang out her washing on a windy day. Through the lovely in-between-the-lines feeling and the spot-on imagery, we feel its 24-carat truth ― one can’t be ashamed of the word. We recognize with pleasure the rightness of the metaphors and images that magically make us one with mother and child ― and acknowledge, all over again, that real gold can be turned up anywhere.
Gary Hayes (in API Review of Books, April 2006)
(In “Wundawax”, the winning poem, an) engaging central presence… and strong sense of the physical world and its metaphysical shadows are expressed in a personal and direct style. The poet… succeeded in both recording an immediate experience and allegorizing it without compromising either.
Julian Croft (judge of the 1998 Ulitarra Robert Harris Poetry Prize)
Our second prize goes to “Istan and Other Places”, a compelling mental journey in which the speaker reads in images of landscape his separation from an unnamed other… A journey through place and a journey through time become intermeshed, and in turn paralleled by a journey in the mind through baffled emotions and estrangement… The poem remains poised, or tugged, between an ‘an unanchored future’ and the past, with ‘its besieging presence, its persistent/infiltrations.’ There is much memorable and striking imagery: ‘A man who spoke/ from a gauze patch on his throat/ gave me a blood orange’; ‘you’re so far north the Aurora/ unfolds above you, a scarf of light’; ‘Buildings torn open, frozen stage sets/ exposed to the applause of war’.
Carol Jenkins and Stephen Edgar (judges of the 2016 Newcastle Poetry Prize)
From its opening lines it (“Buying Online”, the winning poem) speaks with a controlled creative flair, in a manner that looks deceptively simple―a skill we know takes years to develop… It’s understated in its wisdom and invitation, …being about the weight and heft of poetry in a material world.
Sarah Day and Nathan Curnow (judges of the 2018 Newcastle Poetry Prize
When Ross Gillett leads a workshop I always leave with a fresh view of the possibility of poetry. Ross is an experienced professional who genuinely loves the poetic voice and is dedicated to broadening our views of what poetry can be and do. I highly recommend his style, empathy, and the depth of understanding he brings to the workshop situation. I was impressed, from the first workshop I attended, with the generosity and acuity with which he advised me regarding the poem I offered for workshopping.
In my experience he is also a powerful and sensitive manuscript assessor, bringing the same qualities to that role as he does to the workshops.
Jennie Fraine
Poet & Memoirist
Being mentored by Ross Gillett has been a major turning point in my poetry development. His insights into my work have enabled me to read, reflect and change, if necessary, my poems without losing my ‘voice’ or tone, or the essence of the pieces. A rare skill indeed, and one for which I am indebted.
Working with Ross has also resulted in a collection of my poems being accepted for publication.
Diana Pearce
Thanks to… Ross Gillett for his sharp editing.
Ed Wright (Gas Deities)
Thanks to… valued ed. Ross Gillett
Meredith Wattison (The Munchian O)
I’m particularly grateful to Ross Gillett… (for) astute editorial suggestions; few poems here have nor benefited from them.
Isi Unikowski (Kintsugi)
…thank you for your valuable editorial input
Mark Mahemoff (Trojan Gifts)
(Thanks)… to Ross Gillett, for sensitive, incisive editing.
Gaylene Carbis (I Have Decided To Remain Vertical)
One of the most memorable poems in all the glittering array offered by both books (The Best Australian Poetry 2005, UQP, and The Best Australian Poems 2005, Black Inc) is Ross Gillett’s poem, “Good Drying Day” ― about a small child helping a mother hang out her washing on a windy day. Through the lovely in-between-the-lines feeling and the spot-on imagery, we feel its 24-carat truth ― one can’t be ashamed of the word. We recognize with pleasure the rightness of the metaphors and images that magically make us one with mother and child ― and acknowledge, all over again, that real gold can be turned up anywhere.
Gary Hayes (in API Review of Books, April 2006)
(In “Wundawax”, the winning poem, an) engaging central presence… and strong sense of the physical world and its metaphysical shadows are expressed in a personal and direct style. The poet… succeeded in both recording an immediate experience and allegorizing it without compromising either.
Julian Croft (judge of the 1998 Ulitarra Robert Harris Poetry Prize)
Our second prize goes to “Istan and Other Places”, a compelling mental journey in which the speaker reads in images of landscape his separation from an unnamed other… A journey through place and a journey through time become intermeshed, and in turn paralleled by a journey in the mind through baffled emotions and estrangement… The poem remains poised, or tugged, between an ‘an unanchored future’ and the past, with ‘its besieging presence, its persistent/infiltrations.’ There is much memorable and striking imagery: ‘A man who spoke/ from a gauze patch on his throat/ gave me a blood orange’; ‘you’re so far north the Aurora/ unfolds above you, a scarf of light’; ‘Buildings torn open, frozen stage sets/ exposed to the applause of war’.
Carol Jenkins and Stephen Edgar (judges of the 2016 Newcastle Poetry Prize)
From its opening lines it (“Buying Online”, the winning poem) speaks with a controlled creative flair, in a manner that looks deceptively simple―a skill we know takes years to develop… It’s understated in its wisdom and invitation, …being about the weight and heft of poetry in a material world.
Sarah Day and Nathan Curnow (judges of the 2018 Newcastle Poetry Prize
