Bright Travellers

by Fiona Benson

Winner of the 2015 Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize
Winner of the 2015 Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry Prize for First Full Collection

In this remarkable, intensely moving, first collection, Fiona Benson shows her fascination with human experience. The poems move on archaeological fast-forward from submerged Devonian forests and a Paleolithic cave-bear skull to the site of decommissioned submarines at HMNB Devonport, where the sea is ‘still a torpedo-path, / an Armageddon road’. She explores the shared human continuum of bodily longing – from the Prehistoric maker of a wooden fertility fetish, to a modern-day couple wading through summer pollen – and the timeless cycles of conception, birth and child-rearing.

A central sequence of dramatic monologues addressed to Van Gogh allows for a focussed exploration of depression, violence, passion and creativity. In these poems, as in all the poems in this impressive debut, we feel keenly the sense of life lived at the edge of threat – catastrophe, even – but also on the cusp of beauty and happiness. Other poems about the bewildering loss of miscarriage are hard to read and impossible to forget, moving with grace and authority through great grief to arrive at a hard-won destination of selfless, unqualified love.

‘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.’

Genres: Poetry

80 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2014

Reviews

[Marc Nash · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the first section "Dumnonia" about a Cornish landscape dating back from prehistory through ancient forest, a time of witches, all the way to a nuclear sub base, but then there was an unsatisfying turn "Love Letters To Vincent" all themed on Van Gogh's paintings or him as lover-muse to the poet which didn't work for m at all. But the final section dealing with pregnancy, miscarriage, foetal development, birth and early months was stunning and recognisable, the joy, fear and mutual vulnerability of mother and child.

Video review https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPoOP...

[Amanda ☕ Steeping Stories ☕ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I still think of this collection and it's been a good long while since I gobbled it down in delicious, feverish bites. I especially loved Benson's Van Gogh section—God, I wish I could live in it. There's also a poem about a cactus I can't remember the name of (maybe it is just "Cactus"?) that I would tattoo on my arm just so I could read it over and over again.

Overall, this is a brilliant collection of poems that are sharp, musical, biting—with lines of such clear-cut imagery that they crystallise in your mind. I highly recommend you pick it up.

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[Caspar "moved to storygraph" Bryant]

yeah Fiona is really one of the absolute best working in UK poetry right now this is her debut and it's enough to make anybody feel shy she's wonderful a bit of a miracle with an incredible ear. I recommend Fiona to all sorts of people including those who don't really know anything about Brit poetry and she just keeps proving herself I think it's a nice place to start with her. It's a very Burnside collection too

[scarlettraces · Rating 4 out of 5]

(4.5) I think her next collection will be a stand-out. This almost got there, except for the poem about writing a poem and one or two others that came across as scrabbling for material.

[Mina M · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good collection, but a lot of the references went over my head, I’m afraid.

[Emma-Lee Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

From dark ages Devon to modern day council offices, Benson uses the framework of history, mythology and the natural world to consider everyday aspects of human life. We are invited to hear elegies to the earth, whispers in the ears of lovers, and the hysterical shriek of a goddess. But though she uses grand stages to spotlight her existential dramas, the poetry is approachable. Benson uses her own and imagined experiences to expose the rawest moments of humanity. Her collection is striking in its scale and intimacy. Full review here.

[Catherine Ayres · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love this collection. The central sequence, where she writes to and about Vincent Van Gogh is surprising and stunning.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I came across one of Fiona Benson's poems online and immediately fell in love, so had to check out her collections from her debut onwards. This collection really shone for me in the poems focused on history and landscape - I especially loved "Cave Bear" and "Rougemont" - but the rest of the collection I didn't love quite as much. While there was some beautiful turns of phrase in the central collection of poems based on Vincent van Gogh's life and work, I sadly just don't care about van Gogh enough for any of those poems to really stick with me.

I do think this is an excellent debut collection, though, and I'm excited to delve into more of Benson's work!

[Rosamund Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

This tender, daring collection demonstrates a remarkable attention to vivid and surprising detail: a kind of imaginative noticing that creates a new window into the every day. The poems are full of empathy for the world and those who inhabit it. Benson draws on historical details of her home in Devon, observations of the natural world, and her study of the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh, as starting points for these stunning poems.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful book. So rare is the ability to completely to transport me into somebody's experience, to make it come alive as if I were living it myself. And though I never will, be a mother to a daughter, it felt like I was whilst I were reading those pages.

[Emily Cundall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review to follow - need to process this moving and remarkable collection before I write a review.

[S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love-letter to Vincent (Van Gough) was my favourite part of this collection - stunning!

[Kristiana · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Anna Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a word is wasted in these darkly beautiful poems. She writes openly and movingly about miscarriage, amongst other things. Her nature imagery reminded me a little of Ted Hughes.

[Rhiannon Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rich and insightful poems engaging with art (especially van Gogh) and motherhood (including pregnancy loss) among other themes.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another recent discovery from the UK. I am not as far into this book as I am with Rachel Boast, but I'm fairly impressed so far.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful and heart wrenching, raw and striking. I look forward to following her poetry in the future.

[Colette Colfer]

I was attracted to this book after reading the poem by Benson which was shortlisted for the Forward Poetry Prize 2018 (‘Ruins’). And I wasn’t disappointed. This is her first collection and is rich with imagery and language. There are different sections divided by theme including one series on Van Gogh’s paintings and another on pregnancy, miscarriage, breast-feeding, motherhood. Probably some of the best poems on these aspects of womanhood that I’ve ever read. Powerful, unexpected, detailed, evocative.