Tag Archives: lent

Lent 24: Civilization

In recognition of current news regarding same sex marriage in the UK, here’s a poem on the topic from Ian Duhig. It’s from his collection The Speed of Dark from early 2007, so it’s not the most current of treatments … Continue reading

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Lent 23: The Present

Michael Donaghy was an Irish American poet who sadly died aged just fifty in 2004. His first two collections, Shibboleth and Errata are now sadly out of print. Some of his more recent collections are not, and there is also … Continue reading

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Lent 22: Guest post on Philip Larkin

Today we have a guest post from the lovely Nicky Rowbottom! Out of all the poets I have read, the one I love the most is Philip Larkin.  His use of description and imagery is not always kind, but is … Continue reading

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Lent 21: Child

I want to share two poems by Sylvia Plath, because I like the optimism in an image they both share. One of them, I’ve actually shared before, here, but I merely linked to it elsewhere. So, now, I will reproduce … Continue reading

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Lent 20: Psoriasis

The cover of Sarah Maguire’s fourth collection, The Pomegranates of Kandahar, is striking: a collection of explosive devices at what I assume is a young boy’s feet. The titular Kandahar is the second largest city in Afghanistan, once the famous … Continue reading

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Lent 19: Before the Wind

Kathleen Jamie says of her collection The Tree House: “when asked what I write about, I like to reply that ‘about’ is the wrong word, it suggests the wrong relationship. I prefer to say ‘from’ or ‘toward’, or occasionally ‘through’. … Continue reading

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Lent 18: 1981

In the PBS Bulletin in which Colette Bryce’s collection The Full Indian Rope Trick was recommended (Winter 2004), her comments contained some excellent thoughts and quotes about poetry. It is with genuine admiration that I include extracts from them here: … Continue reading

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Lent 17: Piano Lesson

I don’t even own a copy of Eva Salzman’s New & Collected book, Double Crossing yet, but I enjoyed this poem about playing music (badly) and the start of summer so much that I wanted to share it. I suspect … Continue reading

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Lent 16: Salvage

The title of Jane Draycott’s The Night Tree refers to a lighthouse, whose reaching beams of light are likened to petals or branches. By the lighthouse keepers, the sea is described as “a forest, our blades / cutting through like … Continue reading

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Lent 15: On The Layout of a Ventricle

Ruth Padel’s The Soho Leopard is an interesting collection. I’ve written about it before – its four sections and it’s first poem which fits into none of them. Padel’s grandmother was Charles Darwin’s granddaughter, and I love how this family … Continue reading

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