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Special Collection
Special Collection
Everyone who loves poetry knows how it boosts mind, body and soul in challenging times. This simple collection has been put together to bring a smile, we’ve chosen a range of celebratory, funny and joyous poems for you to enjoy.
Poem
from Parihaka – Twelve Little Poems - Elizabeth Smither
Grass Those who are bent by the wind shall rise again when the wind softens What could the grass say of what it has seen? Flattened, parched, trodden, burned, surviving all, licking the rain with its tongue, bending to the…
Poem
Stephen Lightbown – 10 poems from ‘The Last Custodian’ - Stephen Lightbown
Day 1: Bristol I drink the juice from the tinned peaches. Gulp down survivor syndrome, ignore the urge to add cream and lady fingers. Thinking of dessert doesn’t seem right when I can’t smile at you across our table …
Poem
How to Write a Poem (from ‘Three Instructive Poems’) - John Watson
1. How to write a poem The first line must begin With a succinct, even abrupt Completion of the sentence Begun in the title. By the third or fourth line Which must be notably longer A superior word looms up…
Poem
Yad Vashem, Jerusalem 1994 In the eleventh century Wei T’ai has told us how a poem concentrates upon the thing the better to convey the feeling. Be precise, said wise Wei T’ai, about the thing but reticent about the…
Poem
There are always more Where they have come from, Like the poor who clog the planet Out of mind until they touch us Where it hurts. No use changing channels: Here they are again repeated In the feel-good bit…
Poem
A Cycle of Poems: Bird for Bird - Valerie Gillies
Bird for Bird Some Scottish species and their cousins in America Scotland America Tree-speeler Brown Creeper…
Poet
Marilyn Hacker
B. 1942
Marilyn Hacker (b. 1942) is a poet whose work combines the political and the personal, the traditional and the radical, to startling effect. She is a New Yorker, born in the Bronx to Jewish parents who were the first in…
Poet
Wendy Cope
B. 1945
Wendy Cope (b. 1945) is a poet whose witty lyrics and pitch-perfect parodies have gained her a readership far beyond most of her peers. Born in Erith, Kent, she read History at St. Hilda’s College, Oxford. She then taught in…
Poem
Short Take: Pascale Petit on Love and Death - Pascale Petit
Please note that italicized sections of the transcript reflect areas of uncertainty or unverified content. Interviewer Intro: Hello everyone. Welcome back to the Peter Pears Gallery and our 5 pm event, ‘Short-Take on Love and Death’, for which we are…
Poet
Vicki Feaver
B. 1943
Vicki Feaver (b. 1943) grew up in Nottingham “in a house of quarrelling women”, an emotional inheritance which finds later expression in her poetry. She studied Music at Durham University and English University College, London and worked as a lecturer…
Poet
Vona Groarke
B. 1964
Vona Groarke is one of the leading Irish poets of her generation. Born in Mostrim, Ireland, she studied at Trinity College, Dublin and University College, Cork. She has held positions at Villanova and Wake Forest Universities in the USA, and…
Poet
Chris McCabe
B. 1977
Chris McCabe’s work crosses artforms and genres including poetry, fiction, non-fiction, drama and visual art. He was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award in 2013 and his five collections of poetry are The Hutton Inquiry (Salt, 2005), Zeppelins (Salt, 2008),…
Poet
Glyn Maxwell
B. 1962
Born in Welwyn Garden City, England, to Welsh parents in 1962, Glyn Maxwell was educated at Oxford University and Boston University, where he studied poetry and theatre with Derek Walcott. He moved to the USA in 1996, teaching first at…
Poet
Li-Young Lee
B. 1957
Li-Young Lee draws on his Chinese-American heritage in his poems, in particular his early experience of exile and migration. He was born in Jakarta, Indonesia, the son of Chinese parents exiled there having fallen foul of the Communist authorities. Lee’s…
Poet
Lawrence Sail
B. 1942
Lawrence Sail was born in London in 1942 and brought up in Exeter. He read French and German at St John’s College, Oxford, taught for four years in Kenya, then held various teaching posts in England before becoming a freelance…
Poet
Marianne Moore
B. 1887 D. 1972
Marianne Moore (1887-1972) was born in St, Louis, Missouri. She grew up in her maternal grandfather’s house, where her mother acted as a housekeeper. Moore’s father, an inventor, was committed to an asylum. On his death, Moore moved with her…