poetry appreciation – Page 3 – lucy crispin, poet

message in a bottle

Oct 7, 2021 #anon., #art, #beauty, #communication, #function of art, #Joyce Glassman, #longing, #message in a bottle, #poet, #poetry, #sorrow, #transmission, #truth, #Western Wind, #Westron Wind, #yearning by Lucy Crispin

I was interested, the other week, to come across these words from Joyce Glassman: “Artists are nourished more by each other than by fame or by the public. To give one’s work to the world is an experience of peculiar emptiness. The work goes away from the artist into a void, like a message stuck into a bottle and flung into the sea.”

poetry appreciation

an independent ambassador for conscience

Here’s Ellen Hinsey on poetry: ‘Poetry is the conscience of a society… No individual poem can stop a war—that’s what diplomacy is supposed to do. But poetry is an independent ambassador for conscience: it answers to no one, it crosses borders without a passport, and it speaks the truth. That’s why… it is one of the most powerful of the arts”. Given what’s been going on in the world these last couple of weeks it feels like one of those too-apt-to-be-a-coincidence coincidences that I should meet Hinsey’s words in the same week as someone should bring to the 42 group Larkin’s ‘Homage to a Government’.

poetry appreciation

a stupendous ongoing index

Sep 9, 2021 #Bilgere, #contemplation, #cosmic, #encounter, #George Bilgere, #Larkin, #Life The Universe Everything, #mindfulness, #moments, #Philip Larkin, #philosophy, #poetic diction, #Strange Opera by Lucy Crispin

I was introduced to this poem this week, and it pleased me greatly—one of those right moment/right poem things. Perhaps today will be the right day for you to read ‘Strange Opera‘ by George Bilgere?

poetry appreciation

the gifts of loss

Aug 19, 2021 #bereavement, #change, #grief, #grieving, #hope, #loss, #magic realism, #Moving forward, #music, #openness, #poetry, #Rilke, #sorrow by Lucy Crispin

This week—today, in fact, if you read this on a Friday—I’m having to do a big bit of letting go. The house where my Mum and Dad lived is now sold, and I’m up in Scotland, emptying the last bits of furniture, locking the door and walking away for the last time. Like much that has happened in my life (let alone in the wider world) over the last couple of years, this feels too big and disturbing to understand at once. I feel as though I can’t think and feel all the “necessary” things, and get in a sort of panic. Just the right time, then, to read a poem about letting go and feel it find me in the way that poetry (like music) can. Here is ‘Moving Forward‘ by Rilke.

poetry appreciation

where the enchanted live

Aug 5, 2021 #Brendel playing schubert, #choir, #escape, #freedom, #Lisel mueller, #live music, #lockdown, #mueller, #music, #poem, #poetry, #rapture, #reopening, #singing, #transport by Lucy Crispin

Like many singers, I’m starting to look forward to stepping back into some version, at least, of the regular rhythm of rehearsing and performing which has been part of the structure of my life for—jings—4 decades now. At an informal sing in someone’s garden the other week (I can’t really dignify it by the title of rehearsal!) it was chastening to realise how much our voices have suffered from separation and silence. But it was still delicious to come together to make music, croaky and awkward as it was. I love the way Lisel Mueller honours and articulates the particular joy of live music (in the poem’s case, of listening to it). Read ‘Brendel Playing Schubert‘ or have it read to you (press the little arrow at the top. Poem starts c. 3.10.)

poetry appreciation

when repetition works

Jul 29, 2021 #beauty, #existential, #existentialism, #good bones, #life, #life is short, #Maggie smith, #pain, #philosophy, #smith, #suffering by Lucy Crispin

This poem arrived in my inbox the other day and made me smile in an ouch sort of a way. See what you make of ‘Good Bones‘ by Maggie Smith. If you click the little red arrow on the poem page, she’ll even read it to you.

poetry appreciation

the trees are down

Jul 22, 2021 #charlote mew, #climate catastrophe, #climate change, #ecology, #loss, #mew, #the trees are down, #tree, #trees, #wood, #woods by Lucy Crispin

For a few years now, my local council seems to have been on a mission gratuitously to cut down trees. I get that sometimes this is necessary; but the info-about-works relating to one copse up on the fell near my house gave, as the reason for felling, “felling”. Hmm. Another glorious maple on the green was cut down because it was a Canadian maple, and therefore non-native, and therefore… well, what?? So sad. I don’t know if it’s consoling (as in we read to know we are not alone) or even more depressing to find this poem, ‘The Trees are Down‘ by Charlotte Mew, in which the poet laments exactly the same thing. (There’s a rather good reading of it here.) It was written almost exactly a hundred years ago. Plus ca change.

poetry appreciation

silent watches

Jul 15, 2021 #birds, #compassion, #Edward Thomas, #good fortune, #melacholy, #nature, #night thoughts, #owl, #privilege, #The owl, #the small hours, #Thomas by Lucy Crispin

The silent watches of the night haven’t been so silent of late. I live just round the corner from a popular pub, so some of the noise has had to do with En-ger-land (glad that’s over). But a lot has been generated by some extremely vocal owls who have, I swear, taken to sitting on a windowsill very near me in order to have protracted conversations in the small hours. It’s so loud! Fortunately, it’s lovely too.

Owls seem to be one of those things lots of poets bang on about. Edward Thomas’s ‘The Owl‘ is one of my favourites.

poetry appreciation

something simply beautiful

Jun 25, 2021 #annie lighthart, #beauty, #constancy, #Eternity, #lighthart, #mindful, #mindfulness, #mortality, #presence, #present, #reassurance, #spirit, #spiritual, #the second music by Lucy Crispin

One of those poems I don’t want to murder to dissect, but simply offer you for your delight. I love the way words, used this skilfully and sparely, can pierce us. Here it is: ‘The Second Music‘ by Annie Lighthart.

poetry appreciation

reasons to write part 2

Jun 17, 2021 #Anne Lamott, #function of writing, #grimes, #learning, #nikki grimes, #pain, #reasons to write, #suffering by Lucy Crispin

Particularly when it’s hard to write, as it has been for me for a while, it can be really useful to think about why we do it. I imagine this “reasons to write” series could go on for some time! Today’s instalment comes to us courtesy of Nikki Grimes: ‘Poems’.

Category: poetry appreciation