Listen to the world’s best poetry read out loud.
Filter results
801 results
Poem
The night my mother tells the story of the thief / I am cross-legged on her lap /Her mouth is inches from my ear / She lets the dusk slip into her voice and whispers / about the boy who…
Poem
A Gimbal of Blackness - Nii Ayikwei Parkes
for Pops Night cannot grasp the swift flight of wind, but blackens every tree the air moves, paints them darker, pushes them against the light, the shapeless light that gives them shape to shift before my eyes….
Poem
by Joseph Fasano
Think of the moment before the moment. Before recognition. Before the nurse saw the boar’s scar coursing down his thigh where the world had first entered him in the forests of childhood. Before Penelope. Before his battle for her heart….
Poem
So, after slavery, colonialism, two world wars, teddy-boys, skinheads, rivers of blood speech, neo-nazis, thatcher, 3 kids, 5 grandkids, a cosy council house, 20 floors up, a small pension, now you want to send me home. Oh Woooow! Even the…
Poet
Carol Ann Duffy
B. 1955
On May 1st 2009, Carol Ann Duffy became the UK’s twentieth Poet Laureate. She is one of Britain’s best known and most admired poets. Her poems appeal to those who wouldn’t usually read poetry and they appear on the national…
Poem
How we became the pirates - Kei Miller
How we became the pirates In this country you have an accent; in the pub, a woman mocks it. you want to ignore her but wonder how many hearts is she being bold for? Hate in this place is restrained…
Poem
Coronation Ode / A Prayer for the King’s Reign - John Masefield
O God, the Ruler over earth and sea, Grant us Thy guidance in the reign to be: Grant, that our King may make this ancient land A realm of brothers, working, mind and hand To make the life…
Poet
Roy Fisher
B. 1930 D. 2017
Roy Fisher (b. 1930) grew up in Birmingham and was educated at the local grammar school and Birmingham University. He worked as a teacher of English in schools and colleges, including latterly the University of Keele, Staffordshire. From 1982 onwards…
Poem
Mother and Daughter: a duet - Sampurna Chattarji
When she gets angry, she smiles and sweetly excusing herself she flees to the kitchen and picks up the knife. There, with a wild and murderous rage, she chops and cuts and slices and dices carrots potatoes cauliflower and cabbage: …
Poem
I was half asleep and heavy with a first child when the carcass was carried inside and inspected. The ceremony began, the King leaned over the deer’s body and placed a hand on his heart. He had no…
Poem
She’s a prize forager. An assortment of beetle wings are arranged like shiny badges under her bed. Her meal worms have been freeze-dried with such care that they twitch in the bowl when resurrected with just a speck of…
Poem
The Habit of Hope - Seni Seneviratne
Though it’s sometimes nurtured by the naming of birds, mine’s not “a thing with feather’s”, but more like measured footfall on a slow walk to the hide, the moon a crescent in morning sky, putting one foot in front…
Poem
If you were coffee I wouldn’t live my life in a coffee shop getting my fix on your beans. Public lust isn’t my thing. Allow me some deluxe delusions. Allow me to uncork you in the middle of…
Poem
Excerpts from ‘Incubation: a space for monsters’ - Bhanu Kapil
But I was thinking today about our conversation earlier in the summer. Exhausted, you lay your head on the kitchen table and said: ‘But what’s the difference between a monster and a cyborg? I need something to eat. Do you…
Poem
Who would have guessed? That wanting you could take this shape ? A clutch of coconuts gleams yellow in this dark. It is afternoon and we are aboard the ark sipping till we are rich with amber glow. I am …
Poem
by JP Seabright
I request my notes | which are many | and various | it’s not the first time | I’ve done this | but the first time | in a decade | since I was nearly sectioned | but a stranger’s…
The Classics
Casabianca
Read by Alice Oswald
Casabianca - Felicia Hemans - Read by Alice Oswald
The boy stood on the burning deck, Whence all but he had fled; The flame that lit the battle’s wreck, Shone round him o’er the dead. Yet beautiful and bright he stood, As born to rule the storm; A creature…
Poem
by Nairn Kennedy
(after Ilya Kaminsky) When they bombed the South, we said it was the sort of thing that happens in London; when they shelled Harrogate, we thought: well, they’ve always been snobby there; when they missiled Leeds, we heard it was…