Tag: grief

poetry appreciation

yes, please

Jan 23, 2020 #grief, #kind, #kindness, #Larkin, #learning, #Naomi Shihab Nye, #Nye, #Philip Larkin, #poem, #poems, #poetry, #sadness, #sorrow, #Talking in Bed, #wisdom by Lucy Crispin

Something to move and comfort us today, a poem nourishing and everyday-special as homemade soup. Naomi Shihab Nye’s ‘Kindness’ actually mentions soup, but her poem is not the ‘weakened broth’ to which it refers. No, this is a complete meal. It’s tender and wise and lives up to its name. You can read it here or hear the poet read it here.

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poetry appreciation, reflection

‘we read to know we are not alone’

Dec 5, 2019 #4am, #5am, #anxiety, #Fleur Adcock, #grief, #insomnia, #poem, #poems, #poetry, #Things by Lucy Crispin

As anyone knows who’s been to a workshop or event I’ve facilitated (or follows what the afternoon knows), this is something I bang on about a lot. I’m unapologetic about it, though, because it’s such an important dimension of reading (and indeed experiencing any kind of art). Surely anything that pierces our loneliness—whether from each other or from (parts of) ourselves—is worth celebrating? So today I want to think about how reading helps us know we are not alone, and do so in relation to the understated but marvellous poem ‘Things’ by Fleur Adcock.

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poetry appreciation, reflection

reading poems, reading us

Nov 28, 2019 #attachment, #awareness, #Bowlby, #cats, #childlessness, #compassion, #connection, #emotion, #grief, #poem, #poems, #poetry, #reader response, #reading, #self-awareness, #self-compassion, #Winnicot by Lucy Crispin

Last week we were talking about how Gilbert’s ‘Failing and Flying’ makes visible all sorts of assumptions embedded in our (Western) culture. This week, I want to think about how reading makes visible things inside ourselves, which we may or may not have been aware of. And I want to start with what I think is a remarkable poem, written by my 13 year old goddaughter. It formed the front page of a card she sent me a few weeks ago. Here it is:

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poetry appreciation, reflection

‘poetry is what makes the invisible appear’

Nov 23, 2019 #Cafavy, #compassion, #elegy, #Failing and Flying, #grief, #Ithaka, #Jack Gilbert, #loss, #love poem, #poem, #poems, #poetry, #process, #self-compassion by Lucy Crispin

Well, yes. It does. That’s one of the things that’s brilliant about it.
Think, for instance, of Jack Gilbert’s ‘Failing and Flying’, with its casual, almost conversational, opening line: ‘Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew’. In just those six words an entire culture is conjured, one where only winners matter and product always trumps process.

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