Victoria Bennett

To Start The Year From Its Quiet Centre

These poems are an intimate meditation on love and loss, told by a daughter as she cares for her mother through terminal mesothelioma. The poet invites the reader to be witness to the private moments of dying, from the physical reality of caregiving through to the alchemy of death, telling the story of a relationship between women that is transformed through grief. Honest, unsentimental, and quietly uplifting.

ISBN 978-1-912876-38-9

Paperback

34 pages

£6.00 +P&P

THE AUTHOR

Victoria is an award-winning disabled writer, poet and founder of Wild Women Press. She has published four pamphlets and appeared in several anthologies. Her memoir, “All My Wild Mothers” was long-listed for the Nan Shepherd Nature Writing Prize (2019). She holds a Masters in Creative Writing and is a research student with UHI (Shetland). She is a Co-Director of The Wizard and The Wyld, a digital gaming / storytelling collaboration. She lives in Cumbria with her husband and son.

“Exquisite poems, tough and tender in turns. These are moving meditations on loss and loving-kindness by a daughter to her mother: a gift to anyone who is alongside a loved one in their dying time.”

Tanya Shadrick

Editor of ‘Wild Woman Swimming’

“Bennett’s poetry is controlled, spare and with the particular magic of inviting the reader in right-up-close. An agonisingly beautiful, closely observed and compassionate love letter and leave-taking for a much loved mother.”

Deborah Alma

Poet, Editor and Founder of The Poetry Pharmacy

“This collection is a journey into loss: not the big crashing ideas of death, but the gentle; quiet hours of waiting and the delicate structuring and un-structuring of routine around the inevitable. Skilful, moving and careful with no head first fall into sentimentality, these are poems that translate the language of humanity into art and in doing so benefit all.”

Wendy Pratt

Poet, Editor