Poets

Lemn Sissay is a big favourite of mine, and I've loved Yeats for a long time.

Brian Bilston. He frequently tweets his latest writing, often about recent events and usually thoughtful and entertaining prose.

What are we .. when we're alone
When no one visits and you don't hear the phone

What are we now .. that we're old
We leave our jobs and be given a watch of gold

What are we now
Why are we still here
Well its to be around for our grandchildren
that keep us so dear

clawdlyI have met Lemn Sissay, he himself was in the care system and he organises Christmas diners for care leavers

His a bit erratic but a nice well intentioned person with a horrific childhood that unfortunately has scared him for life

He has an autobiography that was not too long ago published which is brilliant

Kathleen Jamie. She's Scottish (of course, this is me, after all )

Here lies our land: every airt
Beneath swift clouds, glad glints of sun,
Belonging to none but itself.

We are mere transients, who sing
Its westlin winds and fernie braes,
Northern lights and siller tides,

Small folk playing our part.
Come all ye, the country says,
You win me, who take me most to heart.

*volver ? ?

Ted Hughes for me but recently Simon Armitage.

I recently listened to a podcast with him reading and talking about Ted Hughes' poem Full Moon and Little Frieda.

For fans of Carol Ann Duffy here is a recording of one of her poems by Joanna Lumley: ?

I hope it works
m.mixcloud.com/e2e/the-laughter-of-stafford-girls-high-by-carol-ann-duffy-starring-joanna-lumley-bbc-radio-4/

I have a copy of ‘A Book of Verse for Boys and Girls’, a school anthology of remarkable sophistication from the 1920s, which belonged to an aunt who died young and then to my mother. I regularly read from it - often out loud to myself. I have favourite poems rather than poets.

Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey

Shakespeare’s Sonnets