Poem of the week: Hanging out with musicians … by Tom Sastry
A conventional young man’s encounter with a countercultural hero is sweetly funnyHe said fucking and that was important:“We’re all fucking broken.”He said it gentlylike a priest, soothing the smart of...
View ArticlePoem of the week: My Hat by Stevie Smith
From a poet known for her gloom, this is a sunny, witty vision of a young woman’s liberationMy Hat Mother said if I wore this hatI should be certain to get off with the right sort of chapWell, look...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Drunken Bellarmine by Emily Berry
Seething with contradictory impulses and emotions, this character study is also full of life and witDrunken Bellarmineafter Renee SoIn this spirit of affliction I beheld two things,that shame is also...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Ablation by Helen Mort
A heart treatment provides the inspiration for a lyric as precise as the procedure it reflects onAblationInside the Northern Generalthey’re trying to burn awaya small piece of your heart.Continue...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Harvest by Isabel Galleymore
Carefully sown observations from nature grow swiftly into a classic ‘ecopoem’HarvestFor FrancesAfter stripping the branches of berries the robin held a handful of seeds in her stomach: the robin...
View ArticlePoem of the week: The Thrush by Edward Thomas
A mellifluous lyric meditates carefully on what the songbird might be thinkingThe ThrushWhen Winter’s ahead,What can you read in NovemberThat you read in AprilWhen Winter’s dead?Continue reading...
View ArticlePoem of the week: The Flea by John Donne
A ludicrous image of physical intimacy provides a suitor with a feeble wooing ruse – and us with sharp romantic comedyRelated: 'Sometimes the world goes feral' – 11 odes to EuropeContinue reading...
View ArticlePoem of the week: The Corn-Stalk Fiddle by Paul Laurence Dunbar
From one of the great black American poets, this harvest song combines formal and vernacular language to potent effectThe Corn-Stalk FiddleWhen the corn’s all cut and the bright stalks shineLike the...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Not for That City by Charlotte Mew
A sonnet contemplating the fulfilment of a cosmic ideal shows a very modern kind of doubtNot for That CityNot for that city of the level sun,Its golden streets and glittering gates ablaze –The...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Charms by WH Davies
To start the year, a love poem of strikingly direct and unforced expressionCharmsShe walks as lightly as the fly Skates on the water in July.Continue reading...
View ArticlePoem of the week: House by Robert Browning
A brilliantly wry poem about poetry that reaches farther into society than you might expectHouseI Shall I sonnet-sing you about myself? Do I live in a house you would like to see? Is it scant of gear,...
View ArticlePoem of the week – Ghazal: Myself by Marilyn Hacker
An apparently very personal statement about how to live extends into much wider politicsGhazal: Myself by Marilyn HackerThey say the rules are: be forgotten, or proclaim myself.I’m reasonably tired of...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Harlem Shadows by Claude McKay
Free from moralising, this study of life on the streets of 1920s Harlem has a flowing rhythm and charm Harlem ShadowsI hear the halting footsteps of a lassIn Negro Harlem when the night lets fallIts...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Sycamore Gap by Zoe Mitchell
A fierce standoff between a wall and a tree is rich with allegorical resonanceSycamore GapYou’re history, said the tree to the wall;the last crumbling remains of empire.Continue reading...
View ArticlePoem of the week: In the Rose Garden by Helen Tookey
This elliptical story of a young woman is rich with possible readingsIn the Rose GardenShe’s in the rose garden again, staring at her right arm, its pale soft underside that never gets the sun, never...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Song by Peter Gizzi
Alive with thought-in-action, these verses sing a new kind of love songSongI want color to braid,to bleed, want songto fly to flex to thinkin lines. To workthe pulp, to open upthis cardinal feelingin...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Bright is the Ring of Words by Robert Louis Stevenson
I was surprised how much impact this Victorian classic holds. An untarnished golden oldie? I think soBright is the ring of wordsWhen the right man rings them,Fair the fall of songsWhen the singer sings...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Daft Patter by Barry MacSweeney
The power of memory, for ever young, resounds in this late work by the a poet balancing the ‘literary’ and the vernacularDaft PatterIf anyone knows about sullen loneliness, you doYet there’s a grin in...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Winterpause by Naomi Foyle
This homage to the melancholy singer Nico makes striking connections with German historyWinterpause‘The hours since I saw you lastHave left me in an unknown past’NicoContinue reading...
View ArticlePoem of the week: The Idler by Alice Dunbar Nelson
This study of a man who stands back from worldly haste and ambition gives the busy reader pauseThe IdlerAn idle lingerer on the wayside’s road,He gathers up his work and yawns away;A little longer, ere...
View Article