Saturday 31 December 2016

Seven swans a-swimming

Today is the 7th day of Christmas, and I find myself humming seven swans a swimming. So here's a poem about swans by Owen Sheers.


Saturday 24 December 2016

Advent Calendar Christmas Eve

Happy Christmas Eve! For the final day of the advent calendar I'm sharing the classic 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' and wishing everyone a very merry Christmas and a happy and peaceful New Year.




Friday 23 December 2016

Thursday 22 December 2016

Advent Calendar day 22

It's only 3 days to go and Victoria Field's poem 'The Things They Said' is full of Christmas twinkle.

The Things They Said
The first star said
I’m a spark adrift
in the sea of night

The second
I burn with an icy light

The third star said
I’m an arrow pointing the way –
follow me, follow me into the day

The gold declaimed
I’m worth less
than the flowers in the field

The frankincense whispered
wash me away with the hair of a girl
when I’m gone I’m revealed

The myrrh asked
I’m beloved and bitter – it’s a birth
but has somebody died?

Said the gifts
you must give us
in our going, we’ll arrive

The old king cried
I need armies, chief priests and power
my hunger is hate and my anger is fear

The new king replied
nothing –
he’s asleep in the manger that’s also a bier

The love said
I’ll hurt you, one day I’ll go
that moment’s forever with each rising sun

Say the people, you’re crazy
Say the wise men, we know -
but that night for a moment
stars and earth become one.


Broadcast on Radio 4, Sunday Worship from Truro Cathedral, January 2007 and previously published in Poetry Cornwall



Wednesday 21 December 2016

Advent Calendar day 21

To celebrate the Solstice we have a this wonderful offering from Bethany Rivers.

Solstice
There’s a song within you
that’s waiting to be heard.
The universe expands

the breath within your lungs.
The lake with no boats is still
anticipating the rise of the sun

and the season to open. Through
the thickets of winter, and the lattice
hedges of scribble, beyond

the luminescence of snow-berries
against a grey-billowing sky,
the buds are growing deeper

on the horse chestnut tree,
the ash is preparing for future keys,
we return to sing the re-birth of the sun.

Tuesday 20 December 2016

Advent Calendar day 20

Not strictly poetry, but poetic, we have some tasty mouthfuls of mini sagas for your delight today.


Mornings
The frost on the car roof told her to brace herself as she closed the front door.
She buried her chin into her scarf, pushed her hands into her pockets and walked down the drive.
She hated leaving his warm bed.
And she hated going back to her empty one.
Julia

Ding Dong
The rattling lift told Jack the Warners were off to their son’s for Christmas. Jack turned down the heat on his soup, went to the window and sighed.
The lift opened on his floor and he jumped when his doorbell rang.
“Hello Dad. Get your coat. Christmas with us OK?”
Julia

Abandoned
After you departed that winter people fussed and fretted. I was numb. You, lost to me, now journeyed between bright pinpoints in space. Nothing will improve till I go. I chase your light. It feathers warmth on my skin. After paying the price of the resurrection, we’ll be together again.
Marian

Monday 19 December 2016

Advent Calendar Day19

For day 19 we have some more performance poetry, this time from the very talented Sadie Davidson.


Sunday 18 December 2016

Advent Calendar day 18

On this dark and dingy Sunday, we have the beautiful 'Mystery' by Sarah Salway from her collection 'Digging up Paradise'.

Mystery
I told everyone I didn’t care,
so long as it’s healthy,
but sitting on a bus one day
watching mothers and daughters
in the street turn in to one another,
(how did I even know the relationship?)
I had to stroke my stomach,
every finger an appeal, and later,

when I held her through that first night,
tiny body settled in the crook of my arm,
I’d have turned myself inside out
so she could wear my skeleton as protection,
but we just carried on a conversation
begun long before either of us was born.
and though I wanted to tell every happy
ending, could only whisper, 'you',

into her shell-like ear, had to trust
her to find the tunnel that lead past
the talking wall to find the one wishing
shell, and on to the ray of light
falling like a perfect circle in her path,
and the fact that she didn’t know
how she’d got there, or even her purpose,
was her mystery to unravel, not mine.

Saturday 17 December 2016

Advent Calendar day 17

Today we get into the winter spirit with this beautiful offering from Nancy Gaffield.

The snow lantern
Heavy snow,
by midnight the lantern
stands up to its knees

in drift.
Except for bah
sheep go unnoticed

Bamboo bent low
but not quite
broken

My love, my love,
without you
I’m a blank page

Day so grey
only the snow lantern’s
luminous certainty

Wind rattles
the elder branches
old bones

Horse and rider hover
amongst grey ghosts
part of the woods now

Holly arrayed
for the bridal
words ride though me

Lolloping hare
I see where
you’ve been

Friday 16 December 2016

Advent Calendar day 16

As it's the pantomime season (oh no it isn't! Oh yes it is!) Here's the brilliant Patience Agbabi with Rapunzel.


Thursday 15 December 2016

Advent Calendar day 15

Today's poetry delight comes from the talented Gill Laker.

Erlestoke Mummers

I must have been nearly nine
when the Green Man and good Saint George
visited our village

a gilded turk and terrifying horse
the doctor with his bottle and bag
and something very old
curled round the cassocks
slid between the pews

our vicar floated upwards
like a Chagall goat
lost all authority

the lectern eagle rustled its brass wings
and children ran between the stones
unrolling streamers
tying Fredrick George – beloved son –
to Martha Jane and Lady Ash

and drums and serpents
hurdy-gurdy groaned
beneath mad Percy’s face
now black as pitch

Wednesday 14 December 2016

Advent Calendar day 14

Through window number 14 is a beautifully formed sonnet to delight all book lovers, by Lynne Rees.

Sonnet for The Book
Shall I compare you to a Kindle Fire?
You are more sensual: a tickle of pages,
the scent of a story captured in ink; you aspire
to intimacy like a lover who gauges
affection by patience not speed, by memories
of a palm pressed against a spine, not RAM
or dual core, or gigabytes or wire free.

Your heritage is animal – silk, vellum,
joints, head and tail. You breathe the air
we breathe; your margins bleed if badly cut.
You fade and crease, sometimes beyond repair,
but still we treasure you, each bump and dent,

your age, and how you gather dust and mark
the chapters of our lives. You nourish us.


Lynne Rees

Tuesday 13 December 2016

Advent Calendar day 13

In honour of hearing that Roger McGough will be performing at the Wise Words festival this year, and because this poem makes me giggle, here's Roger McGough reading 'Mafia Cats'.


Monday 12 December 2016

Advent Calendar day 12

And now for something completely different! Today I'm sharing some spoken word poetry by the eloquent Stefan Gambrell.


Sunday 11 December 2016

Advent Calendar day 11

In contrast to the beautiful sunshine outside today, day 11 is Robert Frost's Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.


Saturday 10 December 2016

Advent Calendar day 10

Today's offering is a poignant poem  from Maria McCarthy's collection Strange Fruits

Slipping down
Boxing Day, and when asked what you ate
for Christmas dinner you say,
‘I should remember’.

You are slumped in a high-backed chair,
covered with a name-labelled blanket:
someone else’s.

We are told that at the Christmas party
you boomed out the unerasable hymns,
rallied the others to sing.

Today you remember your daughter’s face,
not her name; and of your son you inquire,
‘Have we met?’

You search my face much longer than you
would have thought proper if you were not
as you are.

I am introduced, again, as ‘Rob’s friend.’
You scan from son to daughter,
and back again,

the half-formed thought refusing to set
like jelly made with too much water,
and you shout, ‘I’ll have to think about that.’

You’ve slipped further in your seat,
as your grandson does when watching TV.
Now it’s Roger Moore as James Bond and

the woman in the red sweater wanders
in front of the screen and demands,
‘Does anyone know what’s supposed to happen?’

Your hands are bony thin; your thumbnail
thickened like a split hoof; and as you slip further
your shirt breaks free from belted trousers.

I have seen old photos, tie and jacket,
dapper. A care worker says
‘We do put a tie on him,’

‘But there’s health and safety to consider.
Joggers, that’s what they need
when they get like that.’

Your skinny bottom changed by day
from too-loose pyjamas
to baby rompers.

Time to sit up for the latest snack: soup,
two triangles of bread and ham.
You are lifted by three tabarded women,

one at each arm, a third at your waist.
You growl as you are raised.
You want to be left to slip down.

Friday 9 December 2016

Advent Calendar day 9

Behind door number 9 is the wonderful Mary Oliver reading Wild Geese.


Thursday 8 December 2016

Advent Calendar day 8

Today I'd like to share a poem by Maggie Harris, from her  collection Sixty Years of Loving, (Winner of the Guyana Prize for Literature 2014).


My Daughter, Age Sixteen
(for Angie)
My daughter, age sixteen, bought me a tree
and walked from Ramsgate to Broadstairs
her Pre-Raphaelite face between its branches
bearing me a birthday.
And I wondered at her beauty, brave
to wear a coronet of leaves
through urban streets where anyone from school
might have seen her. And I remembered
that Christingel, when the candles nearly
burnt her hair and the way she entered
pre-school at the age of four, no tears, no looking back.
To open your front door and see
your daughter’s lovely face shining
through a sea of green, and all their limbs
still growing, was better than any birthday cake.
What a moment we shared, planting it.


Wednesday 7 December 2016

Tuesday 6 December 2016

Advent Calendar day 6

Today I'm sharing a poem from Abegail Morley's wonderful collection, The Skin Diary.

Before you write-off your imaginary sister
remember how she didn’t take her blunt playschool scissors
to your Tiny Tears doll, didn’t lop off a curl,
how it didn’t make you cry for three nights in a row,
your only consolation, not inviting a mantra to your lips:
You are not my sister, you are not my sister.

Think of that night she wasn’t at the tap-end
of the bath, not blowing bubbles through her fingers,
not sloshing them over your face, how the water didn’t slop
over the bath’s rim, and how you didn’t slip
when your mother hugged you out in a towel.

Memorise how she didn’t cuddle close for those stories,
clap when they escaped the Gingerbread House. Learn how
she didn’t travel with you on the school bus, wasn’t there
when you rubbed your fingers over the invisible bruise
that couldn’t yellow on your thigh, wasn’t bashed by her bag.

Before you know it, she’s not at your wedding,
taking the posy from your nervous hands, doesn’t smile
when she doesn’t do it. Bear in mind she didn’t
have that look in her eyes when she didn’t hold your son
in her arms in amazement. Learn by heart those miles

she couldn’t take because you couldn’t call her at two am
thinking he might die from colic. Remember how
she doesn’t say, she loves you more now than ever, and how
desperate that cannot make you feel. And know now
all you can say is, I miss you, I miss you.


Winner of the Cinnamon Prize 2013
From The Skin Diary, Nine Arches Press, 2016


Monday 5 December 2016

Advent calendar day 5

Today I'm sharing Carol Ann Duffy reading Mrs Midas. Another personal favourite of mine :)


Sunday 4 December 2016

Advent calendar day 4

Yesterday I had the pleasure of running a writing session for residents of a sheltered housing scheme, and we spent some time talking about pets and sharing those memories. So today I'm sharing Mary Oliver reading a poem from her collection 'Dog Songs'.


Saturday 3 December 2016

Advent calendar day 3

It's my pleasure to share this little gem from the wonderful Patricia Debney.

Passionflower

blue corona blooms
deeply lobed green leaves sometimes
rush up this bare fence



Patricia's latest collection can be found here.


Friday 2 December 2016

Advent calendar day 2

And here's another great interpretation of one of my favourite poems, I hope you enjoy it :)


Thursday 1 December 2016

Happy Advent Calendar Day

Welcome to my poetry advent calendar, each day between now and Christmas I'll share something poetry related with you :)

Through the first window is a video created from one of my favourite poems. Diving into the Wreck by Adrienne Rich.