Valerie Bence's latest poetry pamphlet is a testament to ordinary lives, and a meditation on grandmothers. Part memoir, part family history, Overlap is a series of vivid vignettes from the poet's childhood, courtship, motherhood and grandmotherhood, spanning the 20th and 21st centuries.
Winifred and Harriet are at the heart of this book: Bence's grandmothers, whose hardy, steadfast lives she comes to reflect on as she too becomes a grandmother, in very different times. Stranded from her family in the Covid-19 pandemic, the poet conjures up their ghosts, walks in their footsteps and - sometimes - feels herself become them.
> We mash tealeaves and bran for the rabbit,
> the sweet aroma fogging her glasses,
> and every day, for five shillings a week,
> she scrubs bloody butcher's aprons.
> We take the clean ones back on the bus,
> until the day she faints outside Boots in the rain,
> sliding down the wall like in a cartoon,
> her wartime hat slipping over her eyes.
| ISBN: | 9781912915941 |
| Publication date: | 27th January 2022 |
| Author: | Valerie Bence |
| Publisher: | The Emma Press |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 26 pages |
| Series: | The Emma Press Poetry Pamphlets |
| Genres: |
Poetry by individual poets Maturation and ageing Narrative theme: Love and relationships Family and health |