Incredibly simple poems
A gentle walk into the weekend with this Friday round up
The headline for this post should probably have been, “poems that look simple but are actually still incredibly difficult to write.”
Last Sunday our guest poet,
, described how she likes to take a complex feeling and make it more accessible via poetry. As a reader I am overjoyed when a poet does this work for me. I’m so very happy to read a poem that doesn’t make my head ache but rather keeps things so very simple and so very true.Now, this can mean that the poem itself appears simple. No long words. No need to lean in closer to the screen or the page, nose scrunched up. No metaphors requiring a dredging back up of that high school science knowledge or the like. Sometimes even the form can look perfectly attemptable. But we all know where this is going. Simple to read does not always mean simple to write.
However, we are not there yet. Lets just enjoy a few examples of poems that I think take a complex emotion or subject and make it oh, so, simple. Joy, fear, the deep hopes and dreams we have for our children, climate change. 10,000 word essays wouldn’t be long enough to tackle some of the topics that these poems lay out on a single page…
Joy, by Hugo Williams, from Dock Leaves, published by Faber, 1994.
Do Not Ask your Children to Strive, by William Martin, from The Parents Tao Te Ching.
Good, by
, as a print on her website here.
You might say one of the best for taking complex subjects and writing poems that are straight-talking and accessible, this is Hollie McNish for Fashion Revolution fanzine. I actually can’t believe this is the first poem by Hollie McNish I’ve shared on here!
I’m conscious that this is quite the broad selection of poetry subject matter this week. I actually found curating the selection tricky because there were SO many directions to go in. As you can imagine, I had many more poems that I could have shared but time, as always, time.
Anyway, I’m curious to find out if the same will be true in the comments.
Over to you,
Nelly x
Really, *really* love this selection Nelly. There is something so grounding in simple words that you know have taken a *lot* of distilling. Thank you for week after week of gorgeous, quality poetry and prompts 🤍
I found myself thinking this week about what matters when we look back, which led my thoughts to a lovely friend who died a few years ago…
‘Little’ Things Legacy
I don’t remember her ‘big successes,’ her exam results or her job banding.
What stays in my heart is what she loved and how she made me feel in her presence.
A legacy of ‘little’ lovely things loaded up into my being alongside the empty space of a future we’ll never share.
Oh these poems Nelly. I devoured them all. Thanks for sharing. I’ve struggled to keep up with poetry recently- half terms, poorly kids etc you know the drill. But I've thoroughly enjoyed reading everything from the sidelines. An existing one from me this week...
I wonder if there's a place
Lost parts go to gather
To find themselves again
When a woman becomes a mother