Dealing with chronic pain, losing a family member, and Clemente Susini’s dissectible wax woman dubbed Anatomical Venus are among the subjects dealt with in Courtney Bates-Hardy’s poetry collection Anatomical Venus. The collection includes just under 70 poems. Earlier iterations of some of the poems have appeared in This Magazine, PRISM, Grain Magazine, Event Magazine, and other venues.
Bates-Hardy describes the visceral impact of being in a car accident, and the frustration of follow-up appointments and continued pain. “On Healing” includes the lines “Healing is a finger-digging / strangled scream of a climb,” while “On Healing, Redux,” states:
. . . We don’t heal just once;
We heal again and again and again,
seventy times seven, flesh to bone,
and there is no escape until it’s done.
The feeling of helplessness accompanying chronic pain is depicted in poems like “Autopsy” and “Things I Have Tried for Chronic Pain.” In “Autopsy,” Bates-Hardy notes,
I have been opened and emptied,
sliced from collarbone to breastbone
sawed through the sternum,
scraped from the inside out.
The poem concludes with the remark, “Even if I knew what was wrong, / they wouldn’t uncover it.”
In many of the poems, Bates-Hardy bares her soul, offering imagery that feels vulnerable and intimate. Those who struggle with chronic pain may find an echo of their own emotions between the lines of these poems, and those who do not experience it may emerge from reading this collection with greater empathy.
Physical pain and loss of function isn’t the only type of loss depicted in the poems. There is also a set of poems dealing with Bates-Hardy’s grandmother’s falling ill, living with failing health, and subsequently dying. In “Nana’s Recipe,” Bates-Hardy reflects on the loss of her Nana after the fact: “I am covering the dough and waiting / for grief to double.” The series of poems dealing with her grandmother’s illness provide points of resonance for readers who have lost someone close to them.
Some of poems in the collection reference myth, literature, and fairy tales, using metaphor to good effect. “Marriage Vows” includes the lines, “I will be your wolf in the woods, / the flash of red between trees.” In “A Trail of Blood,” Bates-Hardy muses,
I know the forms of fairy tales, their hidden
doors and winding paths. I know it’s possible
to live after being swallowed alive
and slicing your way out. You’ll leave
a trail of blood wherever you go.
“First Job” provides insights into the behind-the-scenes activity at a funeral home, in which, among other things, the author describes cleaning coffins:
I dust rows of them,
some open, some closed, all empty.
Walking into that dark room, alone,
is like drifting to sleep and startling
awake in a field full of stars.
A “Notes” section at the end of the book provides information about the inspiration for, and content of, some of the poems and/or their titles, with some of the poems being sparked by illustrations, books, talks, or manuals. This section makes for interesting reading, and provides additional insight into the poems. Several poems, including “The Lady Anatomist,” “The Lady Anatomist’s Tools,” and “The Lady Anatomist Carries Her Death,” were written after The Lady Anatomist by Rebecca Messbarger.
Though the content of Anatomical Venus does not always make for comfortable reading, that’s part of the point. This collection includes some intriguing images and metaphors, and Bates-Hardy demonstrates admirable courage in her willingness to share vulnerable moments.
Courtney Bates-Hardy is the author of House of Mystery (ChiZine Publications, 2016) and a chapbook, Sea Foam (JackPine Press, 2013). Her poems have been published in Grain, Vallum, PRISM, and CAROUSEL, among others. She has been featured in Best Canadian Poetry 2021 (Biblioasis) and nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is queer, neurodivergent, and disabled, and one-third of a writing group called The Pain Poets. She lives in Regina, Saskatchewan.
Publisher: Radiant Press (April 9, 2024)
Paperback 5.5″ x 8.5″ | 96 pages
ISBN: 9781998926060
Lisa Timpf is a retired HR and communications professional who lives in Simcoe, Ontario. Her writing has appeared in New Myths, Star*Line, The Future Fire, Triangulation: Habitats, and other venues. Lisa’s speculative haibun collection, In Days to Come, is available from Hiraeth Publishing. You can find out more about Lisa’s writing at http://lisatimpf.blogspot.com/.