I have written lots of poetry in the past – even given a
few public readings – but the Muse went off in the huff a year or so ago.
‘Write your short stories then,’ she
snapped over her shoulder as she disappeared into the blue remembered hills,
‘but don’t expect me to jump up when you’re in the mood for a poem. I’m off!’
I’ve tried
calling to her to no avail. I can only hope she’ll slink back sometime when I’m
not looking.
But she can’t
stop me reading poems by other people or listening to Poetry Please.
Not highly
original choices I know, but my five favourite poems are (probably):
Fern Hill by
Dylan Thomas
Stopping by
the Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost
Sea Fever by
John Masefield
The
Lamplighter by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Lake Isle
of Innisfree by W. B. Yeats
‘Now
as I was young and easy under the apple boughs’ is the first line of (possibly)
my very favourite poem, Fern Hill, Dylan
Thomas’ look at his lost youth. Every one of the subsequent lines is just as
rich and gorgeous and unexpected as the first one, check them out here. He was the subject of one
of the Edinburgh Book Festival’s reading events this year, chaired by Lilias
Fraser from the Scottish Poetry Library. A group of about twenty DT fans, ably
guided by Lilias, made very insightful comments which added to my appreciation
of Fern Hill and introduced me to
three of DT’s other poems. There's a reading of the poem on YouTube by Richard Burton and, perhaps surprisingly, one by Prince Charles.
Another Book Festival event featured Billy
Collins, one-time American poet laureate. I saw him at the BF eight years ago
and have never forgotten his reading. He has been called ‘the most popular poet in America’, and
is famous for his conversational, witty poems. They work well on the page but
hearing him read adds another brilliant dimension. Check out his quietly
hilarious poem on mother love called The
Lanyard on YouTube here.
I’ve also been reading poems with a different slant on mother love by my
American friend Kathy Roberson, who has just published Moments of Departure. To
paraphrase from the blurb:
‘Twenty-one years ago, Kathy and her
husband, adopted a child with special needs who was, in adoption lingo, “hard
to place”. One-year-old Katie came with labels: African American, general
development delays, mild cerebral palsy. And thus begins the Robersons’ journey
into new territory, both for them as parents and their other two young children
as siblings.
Kathy’s collection
of poems relates her family’s challenging adventure, beginning with the day
they buckled Katie into her car seat for the first time, moving through the
following two decades of bringing her into adulthood. Each poem mines the
seemingly little things in life to unearth fundamental truths that will
resonate for anyone who has encountered the frustrations and joys of caring for
a loved one.’
Kathy is a wonderful poet and her poems
can be enjoyed by anyone but if you know of a family who you think would
particularly appreciate the book do let them know about it (or buy them a copy – it's available in
paperback and on Kindle, on .co.uk and .com). Here's a flavour:
Navy Converse
Even quite young she’d spot
them a mile away, along
long aisles of shoes of all
sizes an styles, men’s, women’s,
teens’ children’s, formal,
casual, blue canvas that were not
the same. She could
tell at a glance
as she sped by,
crying out
“NO!” when I tried to suggest
they’d do just fine.
….
