Tag: Larkin

poetry, poetry appreciation, reflection

talking or lying…?

Aug 6, 2024 #connection, #courage, #despair, #fear, #honesty, #intimacy, #isolation, #Larkin, #Philip Larkin, #poem, #poetry, #relationship, #Talking in Bed by Lucy Crispin

A friend of mine recently dealt with a potentially tricky situation between us with tremendous grace and courage. Their honesty brought to mind this poem about its opposite—a poem I have long loved with a deep sense of melancholy, fearing that it spoke The Truth. It’s always a great relief when I remember the poem speaks the poet’s truth, with which we all may resonate sometimes, but which need not be The Whole or Only. See what you think about Larkin’s ‘Talking in Bed‘:

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poetry appreciation

moving house

Mar 17, 2022 #another reason why i don't keep a gun in the house, #Billy Collins, #Collins, #home, #home is so sad, #house, #Larkin, #moving, #moving house, #Philip Larkin by Lucy Crispin

Well, I can recommend you don’t do a google search for a poem about moving house. There’s a awful lot from the Verse For A Greetings Card/emesis school out there. However, I did want to give notice that the column will be on leave for a few weeks while I find the computer, get the interweb connected and do all the other stuff that you do when you move home. And I couldn’t inflict Larkin’s ‘Home is so sad‘ on you, micro masterpiece though it is. So I persisted in my search, and offer you a spot of Billy Collins which made me laugh. Have a go at ‘Another Reason Why I Don’t Keep a Gun in the House‘. Let’s hope that this doesn’t foretell the state of things with my new neighbours…

Look forward to being back with you soon.

poetry appreciation

an independent ambassador for conscience

Sep 16, 2021 #abandonment, #burke, #climate, #climate catastrophe, #compassion, #ellen hinsey, #empire, #environment, #evil, #function of poetry, #good, #hinsey, #Larkin, #moral, #Philip Larkin, #poetry, #practical criticism, #reader response, #responsibility, #war by Lucy Crispin

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’.

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poetry appreciation
poetry appreciation

starting over

Jan 7, 2021 #Aubade, #Dana Gioia, #death, #Gioia, #hope, #human, #Larkin, #mindful, #mindfulness, #mortality, #New Year, #New Year's, #New Year's Eve, #Philip Larkin, #possibility, #potential, #presence, #waste by Lucy Crispin

I’m half Scottish but I’m also half Sassenach, and I’ve never really “got” the whole Hogmanay frenzy. New Year’s Eve has often felt tainted with melancholy for me, in a sub-Larkin ‘Death [is] a whole year nearer now‘ sort of a way. This year, though, when surely most of us are hoping for better things to come, I feel really drawn to this poem, the beautiful ‘New Year’s‘ by Dana Gioia. See what you make of it.

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poetry appreciation

now, what was that thing…?

Oct 15, 2020 #ageing, #Billy Collins, #Collins, #comedy, #comic muse, #forget, #forgetfulness, #forgetting, #Larkin, #magic eye, #Philip Larkin, #remember, #remembering, #sad steps, #thalia by Lucy Crispin

Do you remember those Magic Eye pictures? I thought they were a craze in the 80s but according to their website it was the 90s (I seem to have mislaid a decade somewhere or other). The pictures came to mind this morning when I was trying to remember a name I’d forgotten: something about the way I had to stop striving to see the 3D image in order to be able to do so made me think of what it can be like these days trying to retrieve something from long-term mental storage. And that made me think of ‘Forgetfulness‘ by Billy Collins. If you can bear not to read it straight away, do click the red arrow by the title to hear the author reading it. It’s a great way to meet the poem.

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poetry appreciation

strangeness making sense

Oct 8, 2020 #alone, #aloneness, #belonging, #comfort, #home, #isolation, #Larkin, #loneliness, #lonely, #Philip Larkin, #poem, #poetry, #relationship, #society, #solitude, #The importance of Elsewhere, #Vers de Societe by Lucy Crispin

The other poem in my head while I was on holiday was one I almost always hear in there when I’m away from home: Larkin’s ‘The Importance of Elsewhere‘. The experience of being where no-one knows your name (apologies for the echo of the Cheers theme tune which may have just drifted across your mind) can feel safe or frightening, liberating or paralysing, and I’ve always loved Larkin’s exploration of these facts in this poem.

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poetry appreciation

postmen, like doctors

Jun 4, 2020 #Allegro, #appreciation, #Aubade, #bad news, #connection, #doctors, #Don Paterson, #everyday, #godparent, #good news, #gratitude, #help, #hope, #joy, #Larkin, #mindful, #mindfulness, #Paterson, #Philip Larkin, #postmen, #Waking with Russell by Lucy Crispin

Larkin’s magnificent, monumental poem ‘Aubade‘ speaks with a terrible, alchemical beauty about death and the fear of death. It closes with the line ‘Postmen like doctors go from house to house’ which, in context, says something very Larkin-y and shiversome about death’s inevitability; we’ll all get those visits from doctors, sooner or later. Would Larkin be horrified, though, if he knew how that line popped into my head with a totally different feel to it, about half an hour ago, when the postman delivered two unexpected letters and, with them, great joy?

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poetry appreciation

something almost being said

May 7, 2020 #A Grief Observed, #begin, #beginning, #birth, #CS Lewis, #cycle of life, #finiteness, #grief, #In Memoriam, #Larkin, #life cycle, #May spring, #mourning, #Philip Larkin, #quatrains, #renewal, #rhyme, #seasons, #springtime, #Tennyson, #The Trees, #time by Lucy Crispin

A few weeks back I mentioned that we’d get to Larkin’s trees in May. Well, it’s May, and here are ‘The Trees‘. You can hear Larkin reading the poem, and watch an accompanying animation (commissioned by the BBC on the 30th anniversary of Larkin’s death), here.

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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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