If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way? […]
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Alice Oswald — ‘River’
In the black gland of the earth the tiny inkling of a river The first impression of these opening lines is of symmetry and contrast: one line for earth, one for water; the silvery tinsel of the river against a black background. And notice how ‘inkling’ is perfect for the hesitant, broken thread of the […]
Simon Armitage on Poetry
Poetry is about manner as much as it is about matter – the manner in which words behave under certain conditions and in particular surroundings From the Introduction to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Poem — Okuizome Haiku
A little poem for my children’s Okuizome – a Japanese ceremony performed when children are 100 days old. They are given their first chopsticks and ‘eat’ their first piece of fish. I use inverted commas, as they only pretend to eat! According to my wife, fish used in Japanese ceremonies must be very fresh, and […]
James Merrill, ‘Matinees’
Das Rheingold condensed to two lines: Until with pulsing wealth the house is filled, No-one believing, everybody thrilled.