Monthly Archives: April 2012

Poetry Month 2012. 30: War Poetry

I used to read a lot of war poetry. It was Siegfried Sassoon’s fault first of all:      Suicide in the Trenches      I knew a simple soldier boy      Who grinned at life in empty joy,      Slept soundly through the lonesome dark, … Continue reading

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Poetry Month 2012. 29: Advice to a Discarded Lover

This poem is gross and mean but I love it. It’s by Fleur Adcock, and I very much think it’s true. Advice to a Discarded Lover Think, now: if you have found a dead bird, not only dead, not only … Continue reading

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Poetry Month 2012. 28: In Defence of Adultery

For some mysterious reason, two of the most popular poetry pages here relate to poems about adultery: Sophie Hannah’s Rubbish at Adultery in which the ‘other woman’ laments that her fling with a married man is soured by his guilt … Continue reading

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Poetry Month 2012. 27: Everything

This poem is at the front of Sharon Olds’ One Secret Thing, outside the other five sections – War, The Cannery, Umbilicus, Cassiopeia and One Secret Thing. I previously shared (or at least linked to) Olds’ The Language of the … Continue reading

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Poetry Month 2012. 25 & 26: Armour

I have in front of me two poetry collections entitled Armour. The first one I got was John Kinsella’s Armour from the end of last year. It was the PBS Choice for Winter 2011, beating Carol Ann Duffy’s The Bees … Continue reading

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Poetry Month 2012. 24: Sunset

I’m not familiar with Louise Glück’s work, though her name crops up often as a recommended read by poets highlighted in the PBS Bulletin. I can’t find her in the Bradford Libraries Catalogue. I’m tempted to blame the umlaut, but … Continue reading

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Baby loves giraffe

A lift-the-flap animal book, like so many others, Baby Loves: Giraffe doesn’t really have a story – just a bunch of friends you meet, one per 2-page spread. There are lots of books with mirrors in – babies love themselves … Continue reading

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Poetry Month 2012. 23: From the Irish

It’s quite evident that I like Ian Duhig, having shared three of his poems before – ‘Use Complete Sentences’, Civilization and Nothing Pie – the latter with a tenuous theme of language or colloquialisms. The poem I’m sharing today shares … Continue reading

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Poetry Month 2012. 22: A Spider

I previously shared some Colette Bryce – a poem about the Troubles in Ireland in 1981 from her collection The Full Indian Rope Trick. This poem is from her “newest” collection from Picador, Self-Portrait in the Dark (2008). She has … Continue reading

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Poetry Month 2012. 21: Theory of Marriage (The Hug)

Mark Doty’s Theories and Apparitions contains four Theories of Beauty, two Theories of Marriage, Theories of the Soul, Multiplicity, Narrative, the Sublime and Incompletion, five Apparitions and another eight poems along similar themes. This kind of duplication often bugs me, … Continue reading

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