Vertigo & Ghost: Poems

About this book

Named a Most Anticipated Book of Spring 2021 by Publishers Weekly Winner of the 2019 Forward and Roehampton Prizes Vertigo & Ghost offers a searing reimagining of Greek myths of sexual violence that crackles with rage energy and empathy. Beginning with a poem about the teenage dawning of sexuality Vertigo & Ghost pitches quickly into a fierce electrifying riveting sequence that exposes Zeus as a serial rapist for whom women are prey and sex is weaponized. As unflinching devastating poems of vulnerability and anger confront Zeus with aggressions both personal and historical his house comes crumbling down. In its place acclaimed poet Fiona Benson reveals a disturbing contemporary world in which violent acts against women continue to be perpetrated on a daily even hourly basis. In the volumes second half Benson shifts to an intimate and lyrical document of depression and family life. These moving poems probe the ambivalent terrain of early motherhoodits anxieties and claustrophobias as well as its gifts of tenderness and lovereclaiming the sanctuary of domestic private life and the right to raise children in peace and safety. Together these two halves form a complex portrait of modern womanhood. Dynamic in its range and risk Vertigo & Ghost introduces an important British voice to an American audience a voice that speaks out with clarity grace and bravery against abuse of power.