Hey,
Do you ever read poetry on a Kindle or the like? Normally I don’t. I’m a paper girl with most books but ESPECIALLY with poetry. It’s the formatting. The way the words look. The white space (that all important white space, remember the week we wrote about that?) just doesn’t feel the same.
But anyway, I‘ve ended up with a few poetry books on my Kindle. You don’t need to know the reasons why, it is what it is. But the other reason that I don’t like them on there is that I forget they exist. I like to skim my shelves and pick out a poetry book, flick to a page and gift myself at random. Can’t do that with an online version. Well I can, but I’ll probably lose myself to a cat meme before I get there.
Which is a long way of telling you that I rediscovered a poetry book I bought a while ago this week. And oh-my-goodness I had forgotten just how good it is. I lost a good half hour to swooning over these poems. I moved my Kindle to my bedside table so I could continue the pleasure (and no doubt insist on reading some out to my non-poetry loving husband, whether he wants to hear them or not) later on. It is one of those books I wish I’d bought in paperback. So I’ve just ordered his earlier book, Boy Friends (“A Memoir of Joy, Grief and Male Friendship”), in paperback.
I’m talking about The Cat Prince and Other Poems by Michael Pedersen.
Michael is a Scottish poet and author and you can very much hear that throughout (my family are all Scottish so for me this sounded a little like home). These poems are witty, insightful, deeply moving. All of these things, all at once. His control over language is astonishing. So many of his descriptions have me sighing happily.
The poem, ‘boys holding hands’, is one I wish I could read to every single teenage boy and even more so, every single parent of boys. It starts,
boys holding hands
become men
holding hands
That line break. So good.
There are themes of friendship, love, grief. A ton of poetry addressed to his mum. These are poems by someone, and about, ploughing forward with a different definition of masculinity. Hurrah for that.
Then there’s a poem titled ‘dear lover,’ that asks, “if I die before you do, & you can be arsed, please publish my unpublished poems,” which goes on to list the reasons why. It is funny, achingly honest, and then…sad. Another is entitled ‘Placenta & chips.’ Need I say more?
Anyhoo, one poem in particular had me thinking for a while afterwards. And later that day, a few lines found there way onto the Notes page of my phone. And even later that day, I decided this was the thing I wanted to write to you about on here. I don’t have a poem to share with you yet (hopefully by Friday. If you like the idea of sharing your poetry and getting some encouragement to keep going, including works in progress, I recently made the Friday Round Up posts a paid subscriber perk. Paid subscriptions also keep me writing this newsletter every week so thank youuuuu)
This is, We Are Other People to Other People by Michael Pedersen. Apologies for the image quality (yet another tick in the box for buying poetry in paperback. Which, you’ve probably gathered, I would recommend you do with this book).
Shared with his permission (thank you), Michael told me this one almost didn’t make it into the book but then ended up highly commended by the Forward Prizes. I’m really glad it made it. Isn’t it brilliant?!
We are other people to other people - even the title of this poem is an open door. The conversations we’ve not had, that we might not end up having, the limitations in our understanding, our capacity for finding the right language, the challenges in having certain conversations, saying certain things - whatever those challenges might look like. And that volta mid-way down the second stanza - “Don’t go before I do.” Wow.
I find a good poem (and indeed book) leaves me wondering more deeply. Often wanting more because when you connect with a poem it’s an addictive feeling. This poem achieved both. This poem left me asking myself questions about certain unspoken words. Thinking about other people. What I know about them,
and what I don’t.
A writing prompt for this week:
A more open-ended one than last week.
Where does this poem take you? Read it a few times. Ponder on the lines that make you hesitate. Perhaps journal a little on what you think it’s about, what you like about it.
I quite liked the line, “have I ever really asked you?” as a jumping off point. I also found myself obsessed with the title. But you go where you want to go.
If you do write something you can share it below in the comments, or on Notes (please give credit where applicable) and you can tag Michael over on Instagram too - I reckon he’s the type of person who would like that.
Nelly x
Michael Pedersen is a multi-award winning Scottish author, poet and performer. He was recently made Edinburgh’s Poet Laureate and has written the books Boy Friends, Oyster and The Cat Prince & Other poems. You can find out more about him on his website here, on X here, or on Instagram here.
I’m back too 🙌 Love the title; going to get writing while the house sleeps :)
I am back this week 🙌🏻 coffee in hand, kids still in bed, let’s do this!