Fiona Benson Livres

The poems in Ephemeron deal with the short-lived and transitory - whether it's the brief, urgent lives of the first section, 'Insect Love Songs', the abrupt, anguished, physical and emotional changes during secondary school, as remembered in 'Boarding-School Tales', or parenting's day-by-day shifts through love and fear, hurt and healing, in 'Daughter Mother'.The long central section, 'Translations from the Pasiphaë', gathers these themes together in a blistering, unforgettable re-telling of the Greek myth of the Minotaur, as seen from the point of view of the bull-child's mother - the betrayed and violated Pasiphaë. The familiar legend of the dashing male hero slaying the monster in the labyrinth is transformed here into a story of ordinary people caught up in an extraordinary cycle of violence, power and the abuse of power. At the centre lies Pasiphaë calling for her son: 'They took him away from me/and they killed him in the dark, for years.'Telling uncomfortable truths, going deep into male and female drives and desires, our most tender and vulnerable places, and speaking of them in frank, unshrinking ways - these poems are afraid, certainly, but also beautiful, resolute and brave.

The Michael Marks International Greek Bicentennial Poetry Prizes commemorate 200 years of the Modern Greek State by showcasing the creative responses of hundreds of international poets and illustrators. Their portfolios reflect a rich engagement with Greek culture and history, highlighting the diverse interpretations and artistic expressions inspired by this significant milestone.

It sounds out the complex and ambivalent terrain of early motherhood - its anxieties and claustrophobias as well as its gifts of tenderness and love - reclaiming the sanctuary of domestic private life, and the right to raise children in peace and safety.

`I remember again / the corridor / of the labour ward // and that woman / sitting weeping / with her man // having given birth / to a death - / small grey face, // no breath, / something you cannot help / but love - // habibi, akushla, /I go home alone / but carry you, // courie you, / little slipped thing, / to the ends of the earth.'