Bex Hainsworth : part five

What other poetry books have you been reading lately? 

As part of the research for my debut pamphlet, I’ve read two amazing collections of ecopoetry: 100 Poems to Save the Earth (Seren Books) and Out of Time: Poetry from the Climate Emergency (Valley Press). This Fruiting Body by Caleb Parkin has also been a huge source of inspiration – his experimentation with form and found poetry is absolutely stunning. I’m currently reading All the Men I Never Married by Kim Moore. It’s a beautiful collection of almost love poems which have both made me laugh out loud and brought tears to my eyes. 

Bex Hainsworth : part four

What poets changed the way you thought about writing? 

I have to thank Michael Symmons Roberts for encouraging me to experiment with imagery and figurative language. In particular, his collection Corpus, is full of the most intricate images of light, nature, humanity and faith. Sharon Olds, whom I discovered during the UK’s first lockdown in 2020, certainly blurs the line between the poetic and the personal. I was staggered by her candor, the way she writes about her relationships, her own body and women’s bodies in general. It gave me the confidence to write more openly about my own issues with body image and intimacy. These poems have proven particularly cathartic and I haven’t looked back! 

Bex Hainsworth : part three

How do you know when a poem is finished? 

I handwrite the first drafts of my poems into a notebook. Some leave the notebook faster than others, often depending on how easy I found the drafting process. I then wrestle my poems onto a Word document, focusing first on getting down the language and what I think it needs to say. I’ll often leave poems to ‘marinate’ at this point, before returning, usually a day or so later, to look at form and structure, building the words into something which works. I read poems aloud to get a sense of sound-patterning and rhythm and then I give the language another look. I’m very lucky that my partner, another English Literature graduate, serves as my live-in editor. I wait anxiously whilst he goes through the poem, then we decide on a final edit together – it’s at this point that I feel the poem is finished and ready to be sent out into the world. 

Bex Hainsworth : part two

How did you first engage with poetry? 

As a teenager of the emo persuasion, I had written song lyrics and some rather dark rhymes, but my real poetic catalyst was the English Literature GCSE anthology which featured poetry by Simon Armitage and Carol Ann Duffy. This was my first experience of modern free verse and it certainly served as inspiration for tentative attempts at serious poetry.

Bex Hainsworth : part one

Bex Hainsworth (she/her) is a poet and teacher based in Leicester, UK. She won the Collection HQ Prize as part of the East Riding Festival of Words and her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Heavy Feather Review, Ethel Zine, Atrium, Okay Donkey, Acropolis Journal, and Brave Voices Magazine. Find her on Twitter @PoetBex. 

What are you working on? 

I’m currently dabbling with the drafts of two poems which retell famous stories from a female perspective. One is narrated by Helena, a character from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the other is in the voice of Thetis, nereid and mother of Achilles in Greek mythology, exploring the events which led to the hero’s birth. I am also working on my debut pamphlet of ecopoetry, which features a collection of odes to marine life, and highlights the threats they are facing.