Poetry

[Padraig]

Earplay Performs "And then I knew 'twas Wind" (1992) by Toru Takemitsu - YouTube

And the poem that inspired the music -

Like Rain it sounded till it curved
And then I knew 'twas Wind -
It walked as wet as any Wave
But swept as dry as sand -
When it had pushed itself away
To some remotest Plain
A coming as of Hosts was heard
That was indeed the Rain -
It filled the Wells, it pleased the Pools
It warbled on the Road -
It pulled the spigot from the Hills
And let the Floods abroad -
It loosened acres, lifted seas
The sites of Centres stirred
Then like Elijah rode away
Upon a Wheel of Cloud.

Emily Dickinson 1872 First Published 1945

[Padraig]

There was an interesting programme last night on BBC 1 NI featuring the poetry and thoughts of Michael Longley, once a friend of and fellow ambassador for poetry with, Seamus Heaney.

BBC One - Michael Longley - Where Poems Come From

[johncorrigan]

There was an interesting programme last night on BBC 1 NI featuring the poetry and thoughts of Michael Longley, once a friend and fellow ambassador for poetry of Seamus Heaney.

BBC One - Michael Longley - Where Poems Come From

Thanks, Padraig. And speaking of Irish poets, Paul Muldoon made an appearance at 1.45 this afternoon on Radio 4 in a programme celebrating roundabouts., which his poem 'Sightseers' is concerned with.

The Sightseers
by Paul Muldoon

My father and mother, my brother and sister
and I, with uncle Pat, our dour best-loved uncle,
had set out that Sunday afternoon in July
in his broken-down Ford

not to visit some graveyard—one died of shingles,
one of fever, another's knees turned to jelly—
but the brand-new roundabout at Ballygawley,
the first in mid-Ulster.


Uncle Pat was telling us how the B-Specials
had stopped him one night somewhere near Ballygawley
and smashed his bicycle

and made him sing the Sash and curse the Pope of Rome.

They held a pistol so hard against his forehead
there was still the mark of an O when he got home.

[Forget It (U2079353)]

There was an interesting programme last night on BBC 1 NI featuring the poetry and thoughts of Michael Longley, once a friend of and fellow ambassador for poetry with, Seamus Heaney.

BBC One - Michael Longley - Where Poems Come From

Wonderful programme
Wonderful poet
Wonderful wife!

[Padraig]

Wonderful programme
Wonderful poet
Wonderful wife!

I'm glad you enjoyed it - I agree on all three points.

[Belgrove]

Picked up a copy of Simon Armitage’s latest collection, Blossomise, after hearing him read an excerpt on the equinox. It celebrates the arrival of Spring blossom with poems that are instantly accessible, full of optimism, but tinged with wistfulness at the ephemerality of the blossom season and its passing. The longer poems are punctuated by haikus:

Old Jaguar parked
under apple blossom tree
becomes snow leopard.

The collection is illustrated with prints by Angela Harding. A delightful and charming volume.

[Padraig]

Picked up a copy of Simon Armitage’s latest collection, Blossomise, after hearing him read an excerpt on the equinox. It celebrates the arrival of Spring blossom with poems that are instantly accessible, full of optimism, but tinged with wistfulness at the ephemerality of the blossom season and its passing. The longer poems are punctuated by haikus:

Old Jaguar parked
under apple blossom tree
becomes snow leopard.

The collection is illustrated with prints by Angela Harding. A delightful and charming volume.

You've sold it to me Belgrove.