Poem of the week: The Calabash by Christopher Reid
A drolly refashioned creation myth finds both God and Man short on inspiration, and the newly created Woman unconvincedThe CalabashHaving fashioned the first man out of sticks and mud,God looked at him...
View ArticlePoem of the week: From A Crown of Sonnets Dedicated to Love by Lady Mary Wroth
A female contemporary of Shakespeare, Wroth’s artistry was constrained by convention but she shows great invention writing around itFrom A Crown of Sonnets Dedicated to Love1.Continue reading...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Sono by Suji Kwock Kim
The journey from gestation to childbirth unfolds as a giddy, fantastic voyageSonoOut of albumen and blood, out of amniotic brine,placental sea-swell, trough, salt-spume and foam,Continue reading...
View ArticlePoem of the week: The Colour of Stones by Syl Cheney-Coker
Complex currents of history and geology run through this warm tribute to Sierra LeoneThe Colour of StonesIContinue reading...
View ArticlePoem of the week: ‘As you set out …’ by Elsa Fischer
A restrained elegy for a friend, this is also a discreet reflection on how to live well in old age‘As you set out …’in memory of Ursula SWithin a week your sons emptiedyour apartment, removed the...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Where’s the Poker? by Christopher Smart
This fable about errant servant Susan is much less concerned with pointing a moral than enjoying the comedyWhere’s the Poker?The poker lost, poor Susan storm’d, And all the rites of rage perform’d; As...
View ArticlePoem of the week: The Opener by Keith Hutson
An old-timer’s advice on choosing the best music-hall turn to open a bill is an endearing performance in itselfThe OpenerDo not book a buffoon. People can’t cope,still finding seats and folding coats,...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Ivy Leaves by Patricia McCarthy
Nature poetry reveals a much darker world than usual in a child’s guileless impressions of her abuserIvy LeavesHis hands were shaped into ivy leavesthat climbed up the tree, camouflagefor its inner...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Hey Jude by Matthew Sweeney
A wayward grandfather’s advice, this is a joyful freewheel through life’s possibilitiesHey Jude(for little Jude)When you sing your songyou can make it an angry one,and do it so loud the punks climb...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Supplication by AC Jacobs
This appealingly worldly address to God makes clear that even if he is wished for, he is not believed inSupplicationLord, from this city I was born inI cry unto you whom I do not believe in:(Spinoza...
View ArticlePoem of the week: A dialogue in praise of the owl and the cuckoo by William...
These two songs from Love Labour’s Lost read exquisitely as poems, a light warning to not expect more from nature than it can giveSpringWhen daisies pied and violets blue And lady-smocks all...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Recipe for a Salad by Sydney Smith
This rhymed recipe is comfort food – an amusing and sensuous guide to making a dressing that ‘would tempt the dying anchorite’Recipe for a SaladTo make this condiment your poet begsThe pounded yellow...
View ArticlePoem of the week: The Porch Light by David Wheatley
This quiet poem, about the ways locations both literal and metaphorical can be kept open, is wonderfully musicalThe Porch LightBirchwood ankle-deep in leafy mulch:borrowed green of a buried can of...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Breath by Adrian Rice
A poem about final acts of love that spans playfulness, anger and delicate eroticism BreathWhat is death,but a letting goof breath?Continue reading...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Near Helikon by Trumbull Stickney
Poised between centuries, this sonnet set in a favourite haunt of the Muses powerfully blends mood with landscapeNear HelikonBy such an all-embalming summer dayAs sweetens now among the mountain...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Suppose by Phoebe Cary
These lines of no-nonsense advice to Victorian children show their age in gender politics, but retain a cheering vigour SupposeSuppose, my little lady, Your doll should break her head, Could you make...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Catch of the Day by Finuala Dowling
Witty and reader-friendly, this week’s choice reveals more complexity the closer you lookCatch of the DayMy therapist shakes her head.It’s much more complex than that, she says.Continue reading...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Twickenham Garden by John Donne
Intriguingly attuned to modern science, this acid-spotted Arcadia comes complete with blight, bugs and bad weatherTwickenham GardenBlasted with sighs, and surrounded with tears, Hither I come to seek...
View ArticlePoem of the week: A Bit of Love by Helen Dunmore
An elderly man reckons wryly with his diminished life in a resonant character study A Bit of LoveHe must stir himself. No more hidingBehind the skill of handsThat are not his.Continue reading...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Vocation by Carol Ann Duffy
Subtly shifting imagery describes an elusive role, which may or may not be the poet’s ownVocationMore my shadow than my shadow,it is mute, as it must be.I walk it along the world’s wide road,chanting...
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