If you are looking for the most exciting writing from disabled voices, you need to try some poetry. Within this inclusive space, there is a growing breadth of disabled experience being vocalised. Below are short reviews of three brilliant poetry pamphlets from disabled authors, all published by Verve Poetry Press, a champion of the new and experimental.
Girl Parts by Betty Doyle
Betty Doyle’s collection centres the thread between ovaries, infertility, and expectations of women in society. The opening poem Polycystic Ovaries uses the phrase “I have no daughter” like a metronome which becomes the beat around which Doyle’s spectrum of feelings play out. There are poems about the rage of being denied motherhood and relief of not having to step in to the role of mother. Planting Strawberries and Eggs, two of my favourite poems from the pamphlet, touch on the cyclical nature of mothering. This is a pamphlet that I will return to again and again.
Shield by Jamie Hale
Jamie Hale’s Shield memorialises a phenomenon we must collectively never forget as we move out of the Covid-19 pandemic. Hale reveals his personal feelings on being asked by his GP to sign a Do Not Resuscitate order. Written in sonnets, each poem reflects on different stages of the pandemic, both in terms of what was asked of Hale by medical professionals and how deaths due to Covid-19 were rising and falling. Within this pamphlet is one of the most powerful lines I’ve come across in poetry, “I’d rather die / as I’ve lived as I’ve lived filled with love and / I’d rather die fierce as myself”.
I cried a lot when I read this pamphlet. We need more voices and stories like this. Whilst government, committees, and scientists are still reflecting on the pandemic response, it is imperative that patient experience is forefronted. Too much of the burden was shouldered by disabled people and pamphlets like Shield act as a literature of remembrance.
Where I’d Watch Plastic Trees Not Grow by Hannah Hodgson
Several people have recommended Hannah Hodgson’s poetry to me so I decided to start with her first publication. Where I’d Watch Plastic Trees Not Grow is a pamphlet steeped in metaphor with a focus on being in hospital. There is both a sense of Hodgson as onlooker to an NHS in crisis and meditations on how Hodgson is viewed by the staff around her. Imagery related to the zoo crops up time and again making the hospital a place of watching and waiting. Hannah Hodgson’s debut poetry pamphlet left me certain that I wanted to read more from her and I have already picked up 163 Days, her latest poetry collection, so you can expect a review of more of her work soon.
Over the last few months, I’ve been penning and performing some of my own poems and learning just how welcoming the poetry community is. You can see what I’ve had published here or check out my Instagram @toripearmain where I frequently post poetry.
Poetry pamphlets aren’t always the easiest to source, so if you’re interested in any of the work in this review, I’d recommend going to the Verve Poetry Press website direct. They frequently have a 3 for £12 offer on their poetry pamphlets which is a very worthwhile deal! Expect poems so good that you’ll return to them repeatedly.
You can find more of Jamie Hale and Hannah Hodgson’s work in Moving Mountains: Writing Nature Through Illness edited by Louise Kenward which I have also reviewed.
Have you ready any poetry published by Verve? I’d love to have some recommendations! Everything I’ve read from them so far has been brilliant.
Tori Pearmain 