Listen to the world’s best poetry read out loud.

A woman full of hope comes home

She puts her bag on the sofa

Her bag spills open and out tumbles her phone.

She puts down the shape of her step-daughter asleep on the sofa

The night her daddy died.

Then she lays down the feeling of arms around her

While Liane Carrol sings the blues.

She smells after-shave on the cushions.

She puts down the anguish of loss and the enclosure of family.

Her book falls open on the sofa.

She puts down forgetfulness and erasure.

She wishes she could dance all night

And sleep like a baby in a goose-feather bed.

She adds up 30 plus 9 and puts 39 on the sofa.

She puts down all her favourite songs

And hears them singing in her head.

She crumples a photo of herself looking at him

While he holds the baby.

She lays down the ghost of a man

Who said he never stopped loving her

Though sometimes it felt like he did.

The sofa is feeling the weight

Of all this emotion

It sinks a bit but it doesn’t give way