Books / Poetry
Poetry on parenting during a pandemic
An Ashley Down poet has released a new collection that comes recommended by Pandora Sykes and Dolly Alderton.
Jo Bennett, who published her first book in 2017, explores motherhood, identity, self and grief in her latest collection, Tiny Lungs.
The book was featured in December 2020 on the High Low a weekly pop culture and news podcast created and hosted by writers Dolly Alderton and Pandora Sykes.
is needed now More than ever
Tiny Lungs was given a shout out in the finale of the podcast when Pandora, author of How Do We Know We’re Doing It Right?, saying: “I wanted to recommend the most gorgeous sylph-like book that I just bought a bunch of copies of for friends…They are just really simple and lovely poems.”
Jo says that sales “went wild” following the mention, and says it was a huge honour to have her work discussed by the pair.
“I began sharing my poems on Instagram and I was delighted that they struck a chord with others. I published my first collection in 2017, Swimming Underwater,” says Jo, who has written prose her whole life, but started taking it more seriously following the birth of her first child.
“The poems in Tiny Lungs came about when I was writing reflecting as my son grew up, the joys of the everyday and also whilst we experienced some difficult periods, several miscarriages, grief for lost loved ones.”
Tiny Lungs is the poet’s second collection. Photo: Jo Bennett
During lockdown, Jo gave birth to a daughter was born during lockdown, and she wrote a “flurry” of new poems reacting to the pandemic, the adjustment to life with two children and home schooling.
Jo’s five-year-old son illustrated the book, to give him something to focus on.
“I see a parallel between lockdown and maternity/new parenthood,” says Jo.
“The support systems you rely on in crisis aren’t there, whatever that might be. You are in a new floating limbo and you have to accept it, feel it, live it and find ways to manage it. And mine is writing.”
The poems Jo had been sharing following the birth of her daughter and that are now in Tiny Lungs “are striking a chord as they explore motherhood, parenthood, identity, baby loss, grief and the simple challenges of the everyday”.
“These things are hard to talk about,” says Jo. “It has been a joy to me that the poems that helped me whilst I wrote them have also brought comfort to others, that they resonate.”
Main photo: Jo Bennett
Read more: Learning about motherhood from a single-parent dad
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