Poetry ...love it or hate it?

But, is there anything in that poem that you would really want to do? Learn to spit?! Sit on the pavement? (well, that could be quite nice if it was a sunny spot) Press alarm bells? (that happens anyway, quite frequently with our burgular alarm! )

Perhaps we should write our own version.

There's a thought!

That's one of my favourites, too, nanny1

I love this one by Jenny Joseph

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat that doesn't go, and doesn't suit me,
And I shall spend my pension
on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals,
and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired,
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells,
And run my stick along the public railings,
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other people's gardens,
And learn to spit.
You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat,
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go,
Or only bread and pickle for a week,
And hoard pens and pencils and beer mats
and things in boxes.
But now we must have clothes that keep us dry,
And pay our rent and not swear in the street,
And set a good example for the children.
We will have friends to dinner and read the papers.
But maybe I ought to practise a little now?
So people who know me
are not too shocked and surprised,
When suddenly I am old
and start to wear purple!

J

Not for me I'm afraid. I did the OU Creative writing course this year and one third of it was modern poetry. I only like things like Shakespeare Sonnets and Tennyson dont get the modern stuff at all and as for Haiku! If you like poetry and other writing its a good course if not its a waste of £600.

Cant stand doggerel - you know those witty poems people make up about toilets and silly hats etc - yuk!

My favourite poem of all

He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

HAD I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

WB Yeats

I love poetry. My mother always used to quote the November poem at the beginning of the month - thank you Jacey for reminding me of that. She wrote some brilliant stuff herself too. Favourites for me include Wordsworth Tintern Abbey, Mary Oliver The Journey, Shakespeare's sonnets and many many more. I chose Carol Anny Duffy's The World's Wife to give away as my World Book Night book this year. Did anyone else go to the WBN event in Trafalgar Square on a freezing evening in March? It was brilliant.

Poetry Please on Saturday nights Radio 4 has just finished for the season. That's sad. I liked that. Roger McGough was reading the poems and he's got a good voice for it, even if you don't like his poems too much.

I used to read poetry. I went through a phase of reading loads of it. Then it seemed to pass and I don't know why.

I can't make head or tail of most of Gerard Manley-Hopkins' to be honest, although there was just one that I did like. Can't remember now what is was.

The November poem always seemed more "right" years ago. November just isn't what it used to be! Round here we don't get the fogs like we used to. We sat out in the garden to eat our sandwiches at lunch time!

How about thinking up some haikus? Some advice here:
www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Haiku-Poem

Anyone?

I was introduced to the poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins at school. I'm not a religious person but his imagery is amazing. Our teacher had a gift of explaining the poems without killing them - a rarity I think. My father also used to enjoy poetry and shared his love of it with me. I have to be in the mood though. I can't sit and read it like a book but I do like all sorts. It needs to be spoken out loud though really though some of the poets today can't read it properly - they always put on a special poetry voice.

Is poetry discussed in schools today rather than dissected? I used to enjoy learning it but some of the modern stuff I must admit leaves me cold. Japanese Haiku is thought provoking too..... Hmm you've got me thinking I must look some out.