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The Butterfly House
Following her much-celebrated pamphlet, Flamingo, Kathryn Bevis’s debut, The Butterfly House, tells the story of a life before and after a late-stage cancer diagnosis. These poems examine both life and death, encompassing experiences, terrible and sublime, as in her Forward Prize-shortlisted poem, ‘My body tells me she’s filing for divorce’. The collection, divided into two sections, ‘After’ and ‘Before’, contrasts the ghost-train of diagnosis, its spooks and cobwebs waiting at every turn, with all that came prior. Above all, these poems attest to the enduring power of a life lived in gratitude for love.
In ‘After’, poems like ‘Anniversary’ respond to the painful truth of late-stage illness, but Bevis writes with luminance about the reality of living with it, conjuring it through startling and surreal imagery. Cancer is playfully compared to co-existing with a ring-tailed lemur, and stages of loss and acceptance in ‘Translations of Grief’ transform the terminal patient into a shoal of sardines, a zebra, a lyrebird, a blue whale, and a jellyfish. Many poems home in with absolute clarity on what is most important: love, loved ones, and moments of beauty that we experience every day.
In the section ‘Before’, poems about family, culture and growing up are made bittersweet by the knowledge of what’s to come. The poet’s grandmother is knitted back into being, and the felicities and trials of girlhood are figured movingly in poems like ‘How to Choose a Boy’. The complexities of womanhood are explored through cultural icons like Wonder Woman, Gloria Gaynor, or Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. These are poems that celebrate love and tenderness, which offer freedom and potential, as in ‘Anagrams of Happiness’, where “now is who we might become”.
The title poem is haunted by the butterflies that once appeared to mark the death of a loved one, and now flutter before the narrator: ‘Since my diagnosis, / I see them every time I close my eyes.’ The Butterfly House faces the poignant reality of our allotted time, our span as fleeting as butterflies – ‘Their flaming wings. Their too short lives.’ Through remarkable and stunning metaphors, Bevis beautifully holds together the fact of mortality with the joy of being alive.
In ‘After’, poems like ‘Anniversary’ respond to the painful truth of late-stage illness, but Bevis writes with luminance about the reality of living with it, conjuring it through startling and surreal imagery. Cancer is playfully compared to co-existing with a ring-tailed lemur, and stages of loss and acceptance in ‘Translations of Grief’ transform the terminal patient into a shoal of sardines, a zebra, a lyrebird, a blue whale, and a jellyfish. Many poems home in with absolute clarity on what is most important: love, loved ones, and moments of beauty that we experience every day.
In the section ‘Before’, poems about family, culture and growing up are made bittersweet by the knowledge of what’s to come. The poet’s grandmother is knitted back into being, and the felicities and trials of girlhood are figured movingly in poems like ‘How to Choose a Boy’. The complexities of womanhood are explored through cultural icons like Wonder Woman, Gloria Gaynor, or Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. These are poems that celebrate love and tenderness, which offer freedom and potential, as in ‘Anagrams of Happiness’, where “now is who we might become”.
The title poem is haunted by the butterflies that once appeared to mark the death of a loved one, and now flutter before the narrator: ‘Since my diagnosis, / I see them every time I close my eyes.’ The Butterfly House faces the poignant reality of our allotted time, our span as fleeting as butterflies – ‘Their flaming wings. Their too short lives.’ Through remarkable and stunning metaphors, Bevis beautifully holds together the fact of mortality with the joy of being alive.
- GenresPoetry
70 pages, Paperback
Published March 24, 2024
32 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 15, 2024
I introduced Kathryn at her launch recently and I said the following in praise of this book:
"When I read Kathryn’s poetry, I think of how gorgeous and how fragile life is, that we need to seize every moment and make the very most of it that we can. Kathryn’s poems remind us that we get so caught up in the little things, the petty things that we forget what a miracle it is living this glorious life, which is not to say that we don’t suffer, not to say that life is not sometimes unjust, unfair or cruel, but that we persevere in spite of that.
"These poems are moving. They teach us stuff about ourselves. They allow us to share. They surprise and amaze us. They make startling imaginative leaps. They make us look at our own lives and experiences. They make us face our own fears and seek joy in spite of them. And so much, despite the difficulties depicted in some poems, that’s what I find her work – joy, and that’s how I will always think of Kathryn’s work, as seeking, as questing towards joy."
"When I read Kathryn’s poetry, I think of how gorgeous and how fragile life is, that we need to seize every moment and make the very most of it that we can. Kathryn’s poems remind us that we get so caught up in the little things, the petty things that we forget what a miracle it is living this glorious life, which is not to say that we don’t suffer, not to say that life is not sometimes unjust, unfair or cruel, but that we persevere in spite of that.
"These poems are moving. They teach us stuff about ourselves. They allow us to share. They surprise and amaze us. They make startling imaginative leaps. They make us look at our own lives and experiences. They make us face our own fears and seek joy in spite of them. And so much, despite the difficulties depicted in some poems, that’s what I find her work – joy, and that’s how I will always think of Kathryn’s work, as seeking, as questing towards joy."
June 22, 2025
Outstanding. I sadly can't remember who recommended this to me and i wish i could to thank them.
This collection of poems is going to sit on my mental shelf right next to Michel Faber's Undying.
Particular highlights:
- My body tells me that she's filing for divorce
- Everyone will be there
- My cancer as a ring-tailed lemur
- How animals grieve
- Playing tigers
- Translations of Grief
- Anagrams of happiness
- Miss means mother and no one
- Delinquent
- Knitting Nan-Nan
This collection of poems is going to sit on my mental shelf right next to Michel Faber's Undying.
Particular highlights:
- My body tells me that she's filing for divorce
- Everyone will be there
- My cancer as a ring-tailed lemur
- How animals grieve
- Playing tigers
- Translations of Grief
- Anagrams of happiness
- Miss means mother and no one
- Delinquent
- Knitting Nan-Nan
April 18, 2025
Beautiful collection. I enjoyed so many of these poems it is hard to pick favourites, but I loved This. Flamingo was very poignant. Egg was very moving, as was Everyone will be there.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews