Where did the handsome beloved go (by Jalal Al-Din Rumi) Where did the handsome beloved go?I wonder, where did that tall, shapely cypress tree go? He spread his light among us like a candle.Where did he go? So strange, where did he go without me? All day long my heart trembles like a leaf.All alone …
My new favourite poem: Today by Mary Oliver Today I’m flying low and I’mnot saying a wordI’m letting all the voodoos of ambition sleep. The world goes on as it must,the bees in the garden rumbling a little,the fish leaping, the gnats getting eaten.And so forth. But I’m taking the day off.Quiet as a feather.I …
Yesterday it was all hands on deck to finish Mr M’s new office. What a ridiculously amazing place… Work Poem (by Henry Van Dyke) Let me but do my work from day to day,In field or forest, at the desk or loom,In roaring market-place or tranquil room;Let me but find it in my heart to …
very late in the day… but I spent the afternoon in the library so here goes: In the library (by Charles Simic) There’s a book calledA Dictionary of Angels.No one had opened it in fifty years,I know, because when I did,The covers creaked, the pagesCrumbled. There I discovered The angels were once as plentifulAs species …
It’s the right season for this… Snowdrop (by Ted Hughes) Now is the globe shrunk tightRound the mouse’s dulled wintering heart.Weasel and crow, as if moulded in brass,Move through an outer darknessNot in their right minds,With the other deaths. She, too, pursues her ends,Brutal as the stars of this month,Her pale head heavy as metal. …
You know what I need? A re-boot. If my brain were a computer I would press the three magic keys ‘control/alt/delete’ and start again… I feel totally disconnected and vague. More than usual, anyway! I wrote this post this morning and forgot to press ‘publish’, so it’s coming to you late. Does it matter? Do …
February is Black History month, so here goes: Won’t you be my sister (by Amanda Gorman, US Youth Poet Laureate) Mark me as a ripple Make me a piercing drop Just so I can be but a note Of froth at the lip of a wave, In the roar of this cresting ocean. Name me …
For one of my College course I had to read “Citizen” by Claudia Rankine. I’m ashamed to say I had never heard of either before last week but I am now 100% convinced this is a seminal book that should be compulsory reading in all schools. It was one of those books that leaves you …
Mary Oliver died yesterday. I didn’t think I liked poetry before I ‘met’ her. Her poems changed all that, and will always be in her debt, so today instead of a music video you can listen to my favourite poem read by my favourite poet… And one more…. When Death Comes by Mary Oliver When …
Back to college today, so you’re getting a bookish poem. Do you know Brian Bilston? This Bookshop life (Brian Bilston) I’d buy everything from a bookshop if I could.All my food would come from there.Atwooden tables I would sit, eating Dahl,Kipling Tartts or chocolate Baudelaires.There’d be flat tortillas, focaccia and the rye:it would be a …
while you're ahead... 