This week’s Book of the Week is a beautiful and beauty-filled collection of poems that took more than an age to write and is from one of the most exciting poets in the UK today.
Zoë Sîobhan Howarth-Lowe’s collection, is a special and quite beautiful debut from an exciting new poetic voice.
‘I Have Grown Two Hearts’ is a collection of poems exploring the complicated emotions, the simplicities of moments and the intricacies of motherhood.
About Zoë Sîobhan Howarth-Lowe
Zoë is a Poet and Mum from Dukinfield with an MA in Poetry from Bath Spa University.
Her first pamphlet ‘Love is the way bark grows’ came out with Half Moon Books in June 2019.
Her work has appeared in Anthologies and Journals including For the silent, Atrium, Ink, Sweat and Tears, Picaroon, Algebra of Owls, Bonnie’s Crew and Marble.
She is currently touring the UK Spoken Word scene and has headlined at various nights including: Waffle, BLERoom, Word Club, Jackanory and Poems,Prose and Pints.
You can find out more about Zoë on her web site Here
Product details
- Title: I Have Grown Two Hearts
- ISBN: 978-1913499105
- Pages: 36
- Product Dimensions : 14.8 x 0.22 x 21 cm
- Order Signed Copies direct from Zoe HERE
“When I read ‘Morning Song’ by Sylvia Plath, I thought I would never again read a poem that so vividly and movingly captures motherhood. That was until I read Zoë Siobhan Howarth-Lowe’s second pamphlet, ‘I Have Grown Two Hearts’ from Hedgehog Poetry Press. There are so many poems here to match Plath’s classic.
In her collection Howarth-Lowe reflects upon her experiences of motherhood and parenting. She explores both the joys and the difficulties. In ‘Ultrasound’ we share with her the sense of wonder at new life: in ‘Hearing the Unheard’ and ‘Guilt and Longing’ the irresistibility of the maternal instinct; and in ‘Going Back’ and the title poem, ‘I have Grown Two Hearts’, the fulfilment of parenting. Readers will be struck by the honesty of Howarth’s writing: whilst she captures these positives, she also deals with the daily challenges: such as the problems of allowing children their independence (‘Plaiting Rapunzel’s hair’) and of coming to terms with a sense of inadequacy when dealing with a tantrum (‘You don’t Fit the Way you Used to’). At times this view can be both uncompromising and unflinching: in ‘The American Museum’ she reflects on the brutal reality of labour in previous times, and in ‘Children Who Come and Go’ the portrayal of grief following miscarriage is almost unbearable.
There is a wide emotional and tonal range here: Howarth-Lowe can be witty and funny, but at other times she is deeply moving. There is also a vividness to her writing that enables us to share with her the experiences she describes. We’re roused by the cries of her child and experience her sense of frustration; we feel the tangle of an overcrowded bed; and we walk up and down the corridor with her, as she tries to lull her new-born baby into a lasting sleep. This is the work of a highly accomplished writer, able to produce lines and images that will live long in the memory. The metaphor of the foetus ‘kicking its way out’ of the ultra-scan photograph will stay with me, as will the lines ‘blood and bones,/spun…into life’.
‘I Have Grown Two Hearts’ should be compulsory reading for all prospective mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, children….I could go on but I think you get my point.”
- Nigel Kent, Author of Saudade and Psychopathogen
I asked Zoe some questions about her collection..
1. What was the inspiration for the collection and how long did it take to come together?
“This collection was inspired by my children and experiences of pregnancy and motherhood.
The poems were written over a number of years, with earliest inspired by one of my niece’s and the majority inspired by my own children throughout their lives, so as they are now 7 and 8 years old I would say it’s taken around 10 years to pull together the poems included.”
2. How did you get involved with writing poetry – is there a ‘literary tradition’ in your family?
“I think it began with my love of words and stories and school. There is very much no literary tradition in my family, I’m quite the odd one out in that. I just loved words and reading and writing from being very small.”
3. Are you a ‘researcher’ or is your work more imagination-driven?
“I am more imagination-driven. I enjoy experimenting and trying new styles and forms but my strongest poems always seem to come from a place of imagination rather than research.”
4. Tell us something about the book that nobody has mentioned that they have noticed yet
“I have a limited number of hand annotated copies available via my website.”
5. What is the best comment about the book that you have heard or read?
“My children said that they like this book because it’s all about them 💜
Nigel Kent wrote an incredibly kind and generous review on his website too.”