Named as a runner-up in the Happiful Poetry Prize 2025, Becky Bennetts reflects on her last-minute entry being shortlisted last year
‘Dirty Laundry’ by Becky Bennetts was named as one of the shortlisted poems in the Happiful Poetry Prize 2025. Here, Becky reflects on the abusive marriage that inspired the poem, and how writing it was an act of healing.
What drew you to enter the Happiful Poetry Prize?
I was actually recovering from surgery, and trying to keep my mind occupied whilst on the sofa! I searched online for poetry competitions, and the Happiful Poetry Prize was due to close that day. I’d been writing a lot of poetry to try and process a very difficult breakup from an abusive marriage, and so, I looked through and found the poem that best fitted the theme of mental health – it was a very pleasant surprise to be shortlisted!
Could you tell us a little about the poem you submitted?
I wrote ‘Dirty Laundry’ about 10 months after I left my ex-husband, after I’d just put up a washing line on my lawn. I had found some old messages on my phone, where I’d asked him for one a few years before, and had been blown away at the level of vitriol that I endured in response to my request – it was like I had become numb to it.
It was very cathartic: both putting up the washing line and writing the poem!
One of his objections was that laundry on the lawn was unsightly, and I was struck by the parallel with how he hid his behaviour in public. Opening up and being honest about what happened in my home has helped us as a family to gain our freedom. It was very cathartic: both putting up the washing line and writing the poem!
When writing poetry, where do you find your inspiration?
Life! Going through something like domestic violence is profoundly confusing and destabilising – writing has helped me find my sense of self again. It saddens me that so much of my poetry is about him, or about abuse, and I’m trying to redress this balance. Before this, I’d only occasionally written poems for special occasions, like my Nan’s funeral or my Mum’s birthday. I suppose I have him to thank for finally having something to write about.
How do you approach writing a new poem?
Generally, it starts as a snippet of a sentence, a metaphor, an image, or a memory that I will have jotted down on my phone so that I don’t forget it. If an idea has really stuck, it’ll be churning away in the back of my mind. I’ll find moments to keep chipping away at it – in between work meetings, whilst breastfeeding, even when walking to my car on the school run – until a fully-formed poem eventually appears.
What advice would you give to aspiring poets?
Write everything down. Have a place – a notebook, or an app on your phone – where you can capture every half-thought phrase or mangled metaphor. When you have a moment of peace, go back through and revisit these words – you might be surprised at what they then inspire.
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