Poetry (pen) Pals #3

Eight ways of looking at...

Hello my poetry pals,

I must tell you I have struggled to choose a poem this week. Not through a lack of poems but quite the opposite. This project has thrown me into reading so much more poetry. That was half the point, I hear you shout. Yep. And I am absolutely loving it.

Here’s where I settled after much deliberation, with a writing prompt that I hope you too will be keen to try.

Matthew Caley, Eight Ways of Looking at Lakes

Matthew Caley, from The Forward Book of Poetry 2000

Matthew Caley, Eight Ways of Looking at Lakes

This is a poem by Matthew Caley called ‘Eight Ways of Looking at Lakes’. Taken from the anthology, ‘100 Prized Poems - Twenty Five Years of the Forward Books.’

It is not a poem I would normally be drawn to but I like it for a few reasons.

The imagery is gorgeous, “a headache-coloured sky,” “catch the surface-spangles, gyres, spirals, silvery ring-pulls…” I’m a massive sucker for alliteration. I’ve mused over why he uses 4a and 4b. I’m not sure, any ideas? But I like it. I looked up W.H Auden’s Lakes - you can read it here. Can’t say I am much the wiser. But 4b, how beautiful. “Little lopsided waking lakes.”

There’s humour as well. The end of verse two and verse three made me smile. It’s not easy to slip humour into a poem that isn’t immediately a funny poem is it?!

I also like how it zooms in and out, the first verse starting from ‘afar’ and the third ‘close up.’ One minute we are paddling, the next skinny dipping. Then we go deeper, both physically and metaphorically, the verses ask bigger questions ending at the very bottom in the last verse. I don’t love all of it, I’ll be honest, and some parts did confuse me entirely, ha.

But the main reason I wanted to share this poem (aside from the fact I flaming love a lake, did I mention that?) was because after reading it I was immediately drawn to grab a pen and start making a list of things I’d like to try and write, “eight ways of looking at.” Eight ways of looking at trees. Eight ways of looking at social media. Hell, eight ways of looking at shoes. You could even do your own version of lakes? I quite fancy trying to write from afar before getting really close up. Imagining myself someone different for a verse. I quite fancy choosing something that has meaning beyond the surface. Seeing if I can write seemingly unrelated verses but still keep a sort of narrative, a conversation with the reader.

So, that was my train of thought. I imagine you wouldn’t have to do eight if that felt too much.

Worth a try? What do you think of the poem?

Nelly x