Poetry Thursday

Neil Gaiman reading 'Instructions'. Silly, but I like it.

And if you want more Poetry Thursdays, go to the original site and look through the comments to visit plenty of good blogs. Or you can click on this pretty button:

Paris Parfait is always one of my favourites - beautiful photographs too.

Poetry Thursday

Poetry Thursday

Some interesting poems here, including possibly the only haiku I have read about eating marmite.

Poetry Thursday

Bookmark George Szirtes' blog for brilliant writing and observation, and you can hear him reading his poems here, including one of my favourites, Losing, with the haunting first line: 'We lose each other everywhere'.

Poetry Thursday

One of my favourites - may your day be a slow one....


The Lake Isle of Innisfree
W B Yeats

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the mourning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

Poetry Thursday

Ros Barber is my poet this Thursday, which is appropriate because her collection is called How Things Are on Thursday. Here are some poems she wrote on commission for Sustrans, and her blog, Shallowlands is always well worth a read.

Poetry Thursday

I vividly remember the first time I read anything by Marilyn Hacker. I was sitting in a Starbucks in London Bridge waiting for someone to arrive for a meeting, and I had to stand up with excitment. It was as if I'd just had the biggest adrenalin rush - similar to when I read David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas. That breathless feeling, almost like fear, that the writer was going somewhere completely daring and unexpected, not with content but with structure. So my poem recommendation for today is Hacker's Scars on Paper, and I thoroughly recommend her recent collection Essays on Departure if you're tempted to read more.

Poetry Thursday

OK, time for real women now. My poem for the week is Catherine Smith's Picture This.

Poetry Thursday

I was inspired by the idea behind Poetry Thursday at the beginning of the year, the collaborative, generous feel of it, but somehow let my weekly contributions lapse. But now it's time to start again. Here is my suggestion of what to read this week: the poem, The Nolans in Japan, by the wonderful Tamar Yoseloff. Her latest collection, Fetch is really worth a look, and if you click on the last link you get to hear her read some of her poems.