Stroud-based poet Adam Horovitz’s latest book of poetry, exploring the deep history of Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, is released this month.
Slow Migrations is an exploration of the West of England before it was English, seen through the lenses of Corinium Museum’s Neolithic gallery and the Roman baths at Bath. The poems tread migratory Neolithic pathways that became Roman roads, splash through ancient waters and myths, delve into tombs and temples, handle ancient tools and explore transitions of cultures that make up the bones of a modern society built on the migrations of people, money and even stone.
It was written over two years as a commission to write poems to go with the music of Chris Cundy for his Resonance Fm documentary series Archaeology of the Ear, exploring the soundscapes, myths and histories of the two sites.
Adam revealed: “We spoke to archaeologists, scientists and historians as part of the research process, and recorded and wrote in situ at the Roman baths and at various Neolithic sites around Gloucestershire.
“Having early access to the Roman baths before the tourists came flooding in was particularly extraordinary; getting to see the baths as the Romans would have seen them, at 7am in silence as the steam rose up into the morning sun before the noise of modern traffic began to spring to life and filter down to the deep basin of the baths, is an experience I’ll never forget.
“Going behind the scenes in the storehouses at Corinium Museum was highly rewarding, too – seeing the bones of humans who lived 6000 years ago surrounded by the tools that made their hard lives a little easier as the director of the museum explained all the little connections was a humbling and strange experience.
“Many poems in the book deal with the connections between ancient times and now, and how this country was built – indeed, as all countries were – from the migratory pathways of people and animals over many millennia.”
Slow Migrations is published by Indigo Dreams Publications, and is available now from all good bookshops, and Amazon too, priced £10. Adam is launching the book at Stroud’s Museum in the Park on July 19th at 3pm, with support from poets Kate Potts and Elvis McGonagall and musician Chris Cundy. Entry is free.
