Circulaire by Bex Hainsworth : Review and Link to Buy

Hello everyone, 

I'm not sure how many people will remember me - I first started posting my poetry on ABCtales back in 2008 and returned in 2023 when my first collection, Walrussey, was published by The Black Cat Poetry Press. I was humbled to hear members had purchased a copy and were kind enough to share their thoughts in blog and Facebook posts. 

I'm now delighted to announce that Circulaire, my second collection, was published last week by Written Off Publishing, a superb indie press that champions northern poets. 

These poems explore love, family, home, mental health and bodily autonomy. The collection also features an ABCtales original - 'Learning Curve' was first posted on this site in 2011. 

"These are poems of sensitive and meaningful inheritance, their stories rich and beautiful, balanced between the poet’s past and present. These are poems which thread between the people and experiences that shape our lives for better or worse. These are poems which discover the strength within – poems of survival, of the pains and trials as we pass from childhood into adulthood which are bound into the notion that we are all vulnerable, that we are all trying to understand and navigate the vast complexities of life, family, the mind and body." - Jane Burn, author of Be Feared (Nine Arches Press) 

If you're interested, you can grab a copy here: https://writtenoffpublishing.com/shop/p/circulaire-bex-hainsworth

Thank you all for two decades of support and community! 

 

Circulaire. Review by marandina:

 

I had encountered Bex Hainsworth’s poetry at the time of her first collection - Walrussey. Published in 2023, eco-themed, it struck an environmental chord with me and many others. I was particularly taken with An Octopus Picks Litter at the End of the World. So it was with interest and anticipation that I heard that Bex was publishing her second collection this year – Circulaire. 

The author declares these poems as ones that ‘explore love, family, home, mental health and bodily autonomy’. It’s clearly a departure from the environmental messages so eloquently expressed in Walrusseyand probably synonymous with the personal growth that comes from simply being older.

The title itself may reference a memorandum or note to the world or maybe a circular route taken in life couched in literary terms. Only Bex will know but it’s an intriguing name for a collection that spans such a breadth of aspects to explore. 

The opening poem All houses are haunted by women has a typically strong narrative. 

“My grandmother’s semi-detached,

attached to five generations of our family,

survived the war. It shook knitting needles

and ration books from its cellar,

ready for new visitations.”

Bex uses free-verse with an underlying rhythm that carries a meter all of its own. With this strong opener, the reader is transported to a world of post-war memories and a latent desire to connect with family, past and present. We are right there watching as she lies on “a creaking camp bed…almost woman, almost lonely..”hoping she eventually gets that visitation from her grandmother at the end. 

Yorkshire Puddings is a similarly evocative poem drawn from familial memories where the titular items “…bloom

into boulders, rising like the Pennines.”

Acolyte begins imperiously, packing a punch in the first few lines… 

“The first time I yelled at God,

I was nineteen and feeling disaffected.

There was snow on the ground….”

before documenting the trauma of two people wanting different things and the conflict that can go with it. 

“….I didn’t know he was going to abandon

me right back. I didn’t know it would trigger

a bout of full-blown clinical depression…”

This is a powerful piece of writing, a charged emotional back-story writ large with angst and self-disclosure. There’s a subliminal religious sub-text throughout. Parents have moved further up the valley but the wall is still there - a metaphoric Calvary.  

Shorn is one of several intimate pieces that explore bodily autonomy and connected emotions.  With the emotive closing lines “…hold bald knees/close to my chest/ full of grief/at my own smooth death.” it’s a sensitive exposé with an underbelly of melancholy that draws the reader in. 

Other poems included: Learning Curve, Arcs, Daphne, Pourrir, Lemon Tree in the Algarve, Cysterhood, Bone Fire, An embarrassment of swimming lessons, Stretch, Circulaire, Camping, Santarcangelo di Romagna, Wilderness, Shortbread, Breaking Up, The House of Peace, Lump, Séance, Coiled, Calf, Moles, Rounders, LIFE, DEATH, and the STRUGGLE for STELLAR SURVIVAL, Ode to Plantar Fasciitis, Pebbles, Barnacle, We leave each other moons, D is for Deficiency, Marriage Preparation Class - When Loving for a Second Time.

Of particular note is the signature poem Circulaire and the incredibly moving The House of Peace. The former is a fragment set in La Rochelle, France – another beautiful evocation set in a different time and place where: “…Not quite star-crossed: our meeting was a technological accident... and….You are a person of open spaces/ and you were waiting for me/at the end of the dirt road/For the first time in a decade/I can breathe in infinitely/and my phone begins to ring.”

Whilst the latter is a moving tribute to The National Holocaust Museum where: 

“…My mother and I have walked

the fences of Auschwitz

between these bookend visits.

Ash-swollen earth is buried

beneath the stone, our feet.”

By the time the reader gets to the final poem, it’s time to take an overdue breath. The journey has been an innermost one, one that travels inside the psyche of the poet and reveals her beliefs, values and, ultimately, where she originates from and is possibly going to. An exposing set of disclosures that we feel privileged to have experienced. 

Circulaire will appeal to teenagers and adults with some of the material more suited to age groups beyond younger children. 

Published by Written Off Publishing, at 54 pages with 34 poems included it is a substantive read. 

Bex Hainsworth is clearly a master of her craft and her consummate skill in writing consummate poetry is there for all to see. I have no doubt that Bex will continue to win more awards for her work and further collections will follow. 

I have no doubt that many more people will discover her poetry. I hope to have been instrumental in spreading the word with this review. 

Highly Recommended. 

Circulaire Available for £10 at: https://www.hatchards.co.uk/book/circulaire/bex-hainsworth/9781915320483