1. Gross lays many of the poems out in unusual or irregular form (e.g. Amphora and The grounds). Did you understand why he chose each particular form? Do you think these poems are successful? Did you think that it worked better for some poems than others? Which (if any) did you think were more/less successful?
2. Who or what did you think First Dog was in the poem First Things?
3. The poem To Build a Bridge is a villanelle; did you notice any other traditional forms amongst the poems? Why do you think Gross chose a villanelle for this particular subject matter?
4. There is a sequence called Betweenland that is spread out through the book – would you have rather seen these poems together or do you think they work better spread out? Did you enjoy the sequence?Why? What was the gist of the sequence? Did you understand why the poems were connected?
5. Gross often mixes the colloquial with the scientific e.g. "we've punched clean into heaven: snow- // dazzle plains of stratocumulus around us, the paleo-arctic…(Ice Man Dreaming); do you think this works? Did you like it?
6. The Water Table won the prestigious T.S. Eliot Prize in 2009, do you think it was a good choice? Why?
Glossary
Jeremy Hooker (Stilt City) – an English poet who lived for eleven years in Wales.
Amphora - An amphora (plural: amphorae or amphoras) is a type of vase-shaped ceramic container with two handles and a long neck narrower than the body.
Visigoth (The Presence) - A member of the western Goths that invaded the Roman Empire in the fourth century a.d. and settled in France and Spain.
Gillian Clarke (Globe) – a Welsh poet and playwright.
The Rosetta Stone (Thinks Bubble) – an ancient Egytian piece of granite inscribed with words in two languages – Egyptian and Greek.
Petroglyphs – rock engravings.
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