Secondhand poems

I read poems online, in poetry magazines and on my Kindle but I've also got a burgeoning collection of books - some new but some bought from charity shops and secondhand book shops and some of these are among my favorites. The joy of secondhand book shopping is that for a modest outlay, I can read poems by known and unknown poets. My only problem remains...how to find enough room to put my ever-growing collection.

 Some examples of my secondhand purchases that I return to again and again -

 'The Best of the Best American Poetry 1988 - 1997'  Edited by Harold Bloom. (£4.20)

 'The Jacob's Ladder' by Denise Levertov. (£1.99)

 'Seeing Things' by Seamus Heaney.(£5.00)
The Tulips

 Red tulips
living into their death
flushed with a wild blue

 tulips
becoming wings
ears of the wind
jackrabbits rolling their eyes

 west wind
shaking the loose pane

 some petals fall
with that sound one
listens for

 Denise Levertov.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

For Ukraine

I've noticed that my blog is read in many parts of the world and recently there have been some readers from Ukraine. This year will be momentous for Scotland given the forthcoming independence referendum in September but whatever happens no-one is likely to die on the streets in Edinburgh or Glasgow fighting for a change of regime and the opportunity to govern ourselves rather than be ruled by an increasingly irrelevant and distant parliament. This is for everyone in Ukraine hoping that peace will return to your streets and your lives very soon together with democracy and freedom. In the words of Michael O'Siadhail in Fallen Angel, My gods of innocence fallen, I clench a fragile self-reliance
Read more

DUSK Solstice Shorts Festival 2017

Image
DUSK: Solstice Shorts 2017 Originating in Greenwich, on the Prime Meridian, and now in its 4th year, Solstice Shorts is  going  nationwide. The theme this year is Dusk, that time between day and night when everything changes. On  21st December Dusk  starts in the UK in the  far  NE (Shetland) at  16:53  and finishes in the far SW (Cornwall) at  18:21 , taking between 40 and 50 minutes depending where you are. We have  twelve sites across the UK  all reading/singing  different  material (chosen by us, read by actors/ sung by musicians) starting In  Ellon, Aberdeenshire  and ending In  Redruth, Cornwall , taking in key spots in between. All events BSL Interpreted Tickets : Generally by donation, suggested £3, but there are exceptions where this is part of a bigger event. The performances will match the timing of (Astronomical) Dusk exactly, with a  live stream  on Facebook....
Read more

Poetry pamphlet review - 'Where you start from'

'Where you start from' by Lindy Barbour. Published by Mariscat Press 2015. £6.00. The title of Lindy Barbour's first poetry pamphlet reveals the author's skill in finding just the right word or phrase and thereby implying layers of meaning in her poems. 'Where you start from' not 'I', not 'we' but 'you' which could be addressed to her brothers, to whom the collection is dedicated, her parents, her readers and/or herself. These poems exquisitely chart her early years growing up in North East Fife. The pamphlet opens with the first poem, 'First, the Garden, November 1956', 'We opened the back gate in the high wall and, entering from William Street, found you waiting,' This poem is a tender evocation of a memory of her childhood garden and as with other poems in the pamphlet, it sharply highlights the differences between adult concerns, 'That's not laurel, it's a camellia' and those of a child, ...
Read more