Month: March 2020

poetry appreciation

..something completely different

Mar 19, 2020 #42 group, #a clean conscience never relaxes, #Charlotte Fortune, #comedy, #comic, #Cope, #Fortune, #humorous, #humour, #laughter, #Nash, #Ogden Nash, #pls stop sendg msg2ths, #poem, #poem on the theme of humour, #poems, #poetry, #reading, #reading together, #recognition, #verse for a birthday card, #we read to know we are not alone, #Wendy Cope by Lucy Crispin

At the 42 group this month (glad we made the most of it as it’s probably going to be a while…) by special request of one of the regulars we had an evening of poetry which makes us smile or laugh. It was just lovely: a different kind of light in the darkness. Wendy Cope featured a lot, as you might imagine, and her ‘Poem on the theme of humour’ reminded us of how po-faced it’s possible to be about Serious Literature and the Function of Art. ((I’d love to give you a link to the poem, but I can only find it on The Telegraph‘s site and I’ll to leave it to you as to whether you want to get involved in those particular strong toils…)

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poetry appreciation

more daffodils

Mar 12, 2020 #Britten, #celebration, #daffodils, #fair daffodils, #gather ye rosebuds, #Herrick, #lament, #Moeran, #mortality, #poem, #poet, #poetry, #Robert Herrick, #spring, #springtime, #to daffodils, #to the virgins to make much of time, #transience, #William Wordsworth, #Wordsworth by Lucy Crispin

Occasionally I get a bit of a painful meta-position on Being A Poet and wonder quite how tiresome we are as companions. Imagine going for a walk with us. I mean, can’t we just enjoy the first flowers of spring, for goodness’ sake? Wordsworth managed some pleasure and gratitude about the daffs (or was it Dorothy…?); Herrick, however, looks on daffs and thinks of death (a bit like Larkin and his trees, but we’ll get to that in May). I have to confess to having a fair dose of inner Herrick. I love his ‘To Daffodils’ a lot more than the Wordsworth; and, now I’ve said that, you can read the poem here while I sit back and wait to be struck down.

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poetry appreciation

the possibility of miracle

Mar 5, 2020 #Clarke, #compassion, #daffodils, #depression, #Gillian Clarke, #healing, #insane, #insanity, #madness, #miracle, #poem, #poetry, #redemption, #Schindler, #spring, #tenderness, #Wordsworth by Lucy Crispin

I’m writing this at Gladstone’s Library in North Wales. It’s St David’s Day in 3 days’ time (it’ll be in the rear view mirror by the time this goes live) and a watery nearly-spring sunshine is lifting the air outside. How fitting, then, to read ‘Miracle on St David’s Day’ by Gillian Clarke, a wonderful Welsh poet, about springs of different sorts and the magic wrought by poetry. Be moved by this lovely poem here.

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