Description

‘There is an honesty that is both heart-breaking and more hopeful than anything else I’ve read on this subject. She makes me weep and wonder in equal measure’ Hollie McNish

Eloquent and uncompromising, Swell explores the triumphs and hardships of the journey to new motherhood – through pregnancy, miscarriage, birth and beyond

In the consultation room I stared
at the purple flowers in their purple
vase and imagined my insides:
an ocean, a cave, a storm.

Maria Ferguson’s second poetry collection is a raw and powerful documentation of one woman’s experience of becoming a mother. Against a backdrop of the sounds and sensations of daily life, Ferguson observes her body changing and charts a course through loss and wilting house plants, towards recovery, empowerment and renewal.

Tender, direct and winningly witty, Swell navigates the complexities of family and domesticity, exploring the contending weight and levity felt in this thrillingly unfamiliar new chapter. Ferguson is a poet as alert to the absurd as to the shattering, and these are large-hearted poems, full of life and thought. Together, they invite the reader to join them in a search for self-acceptance, for freedom from shame, and for a path to stability in increasingly uncertain times.

Publisher Review

A beautiful, powerful, profound collection of poems. There is an honesty that is both heart-breaking and more hopeful than anything else I’ve read on this subject. She makes me weep and wonder in equal measure — Hollie McNish Tender, lyrical, a family mise-en-scene, exploring the tiny narratives that write us. These poems are an umbilical, a feeding. Beautiful — Joelle Taylor, author of C+nto A feat. Both creatively and emotionally — Caroline Bird Maria Ferguson articulates the previously unsayable in these radical, tender poems. Swell gives voice to the full complexity of motherhood – the love next to the guilt, the ambivalence next to joy, even the desire to sometimes run away — Kim Moore, author of All The Men I Never Married These poems have an energy which is infectious. Reading them will make you feel free and fearless – Ferguson shows us how language can give new meaning to our tenderest moments — Helen Mort An extraordinary poetry collection. I found each page and turn of phrase unflinching, vivid and honest. Maria Ferguson is a brilliant poet, a dark and wry and witty poet, who always brings a quiet fury and compassion to the page — Salena Godden