Mothersong: Shortlisted for the John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize

by Amy Acre

A lyrical excavation of trauma and healing in the midst of early motherhood - the debut work of an endlessly inventive poet whose work 'fizzes with energy, physicality, and the levitating openness of song' (Rebecca Tamás)

**Shortlisted for the John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize**
**Selected as a book of the year by the Financial Times and Telegraph**

'An essential read, poignant, powerful and provocative. I love the feeling in Amy Acre's poems' Salena Godden

Amy Acre's debut collection is an unforgettable, unflinching excavation of motherhood, what it means to be a female artist, and what it means to be a poet with a deeply integrated community. This is a timeless work the like of which we haven't seen enough of in the past, primed to last long into the future.

'Amy Acre is one of the best poets of her generation. Pure cinema, raw heart, and unparalleled technique. Read this' Joelle Taylor, winner of the 2021 T S Eliot Prize for Poetry

'Mothers, daughters, lovers, all the thrilling complexity of love and grief that the body must bear; these are poems which set the page aglow and make my heart spin' Liz Berry, winner of the 2018 Forward Prize for Poetry

Genres: Poetry

82 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 28, 2023

Reviews

[Rohan Wolsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amy Acre knocks it out of the park here. A superb mediation on motherhood chock-full of bangers.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

This poetry collection covered a variety of different topics including motherhood, childhood, sexuality and world news that needs to be known.

I felt like I learnt alot from this collection. What I loved about this was that it included a 'Notes' section at the back. Sometimes you can read poetry and are desperate to know what certain ones are about as some can be quite masked.

'Ali Talks Me Through The Universe' was very through provoking. It makes you feel like there are so many possibilities out there. I felt it was similar to the butterfly effect where one slight difference can shift the outcome of your whole life. How you can live for decades in one life yet die early in another. It makes our imagination go wild and create so many situations.

'In The Wet Aired Trenches In The Tube I Was' was great. I assumed it was about motherhood and the terrifying side to it. I was glad to see in the notes section I was correct. 'I ferried her by the neck and saw her death everywhere' feels like it is describing the panoramic fear of a parent where they feel each direction they look is another potential danger to their baby. 'Waiting for the grip to drop from our hands' could potentially relate to the constant fear of losing them but possibly also growing up and them not being so dependent on you anymore.

Page 26's poem about Margaret Garner having her revenge on Kentucky by killing her daughter rather than seeing her sent back to slavery. The sadness of this story is overwhelming. To think about ending your child's life being less painful then returning it so slavery is something a parent should never have to face. The amount of desperation she must have had to have had to carry that act out is shattering.

This was a great collection of poetry which both moved me and hit me with some heartbreak too. This was a fantastic debut that definitely will stay on my mind.

[Anja · Rating 5 out of 5]

Long awaited and wonderful

[Cooch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent and innovative poetry

This is an excellent poetry volume about motherhood. Read it and be moved. It's visceral, hard hitting and true, and it pulls no punches.

[gee trushaden · Rating 2 out of 5]

probably the most disappointing read of 2024, was so excited for this

[Juliano · Rating 5 out of 5]

“At the moment of truth, // cut to the credits.” Somewhat bewildered by Amy Acre’s collection of poems, Mothersong, wherein form is pushed, language extended, rhythm championed. These are poems about being both child and parent, the strange wormhole back to the past opening up when the future arrives screaming, kicking, breathing life. Acre explores the body and its relation to other bodies, to space, gender, god, culture, to the mind in which it dwells. “Forgive me, I saw things / I couldn't tell my therapist. I mauled / thought to silence and counted my steps / and talked to myself in dissertation.” In her poems, Acre moves from the esoteric to the popular with ease, resulting in a charming array of references, the childish made deeply moving and serious, the intellectual rendered simple at best and less coherent at worst, what it means to occupy the contradictions of simultaneous parenthood and childhood, to live in the cracks between them and within them. ‘Daddy Pig’, ‘Azrael’, ‘Dead Disney Mothers’, ‘In The Last Two Minutes of Roman Polanski’s *Chinatown*’, and ‘MO-TH-UR 6000’ are prime examples, each as captivating as it is clever, emotive yet careful. I also really enjoyed ‘My Father as the Unmarked State’, ‘Mary Is Holding Jesus…’, ‘Ali Talks Me Through the Multiverse’, and ‘Maybe’, highlights amongst highlights. This is a singular and special collection that challenges what poetry can do. “Sometimes I go so long / without music inside me, I forget there is / living in its wavy lines, that blood needs / cadence, this living left in all the spaces / before I became.” “Between them, a dream of the present sleeping / sweetly inside a future where love resembles itself.” Dazzling.

[Courtney LeBlanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of poems about motherhood, desire, family, identity, and survival.

from In the Wet-Aired Trenches of the Tube I Was: "wondered if / they too saw their babies fall, if they fought / escalators tumbling with fear, if we were / all staring down the same muzzle, waiting / for the grip to drop from our own hands."

from Daddy Pig: "that without story we are no one / that no one is just someone who wasn't saved // someone is saved is the story"

from See Also: "As verbs the difference between mother and father is that / mother is to perform mothering; to nurture while father is to / be a father to; to sire."

from Mary is Holding Jesus, Not Like a God but Like a Baby, Like I Would Hold My Baby, and They are Covered in Gold Light: "Mary with thunder that's worse before the coming like a week- / late period / Mary blue immaculate / blanketed boy on her chest / gone and golden"

[Hannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

as my mother's daughter, I thought this would be more emotional.

the internet is currently obsessing over motherhood from a daughter's perspective and it has led me to take a closer inspection at the relationships I share. there are some good poems - my personal favourites are 'see also' and 'dance on my grave' - but alas, this collection fell flat for me.

[Kayleigh Doucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

really beautiful - will be rereading <3

[Tigi W]

Powerful and original

[elin · Rating 5 out of 5]

beautiful, raw and meaningful poetry. glad to have seen amy perform several times in person.