I've just read this one out loud to the kids who are sat around my kitchen table currently. It got the odd smile. Which compared to some of my attempts to get them to love poetry I will take, haha. Thank you xx
I found Philip Larkin in the town library when I was 12. I opened it to the thrilling This Be The Verse. For a girl struggling her way through a difficult childhood, caring for a mentally ill mother and a younger brother, the idea that a complete stranger - a grown man - could see me and understand my soul completely blew my mind. I ended up escaping, chasing Larkin to Hull University where he had been librarian. He had sadly died by the time I arrived, but his small, precise handwriting was still all over the library index cards. Larkin has followed me through life. Most recently I became friends with a woman I met on the beach. We shared our mutual love of poetry and ran down to the sea together shouting "they fuck you up, your mum and dad." 😂
Oh this story! The library index cards. The running to the sea. The connecting with someone else who loves the same poetry as you. It's just all so good. And I'd not read that Philip Larkin poem for the longest time. I smiled my way through it once again with my coffee just now. I've not read much more of his work, any advice on where to start?? Thank you. x
I think The Whitsun Weddings is his best collection I think. Reading it again now there’s so much I’d like to debate with him. I think he was exceptionally lonely and his ridicule of the family was a bit performative and self justifying. But you can’t get away from the utter perfection of his poetry.
This is just so beautiful. That reassuring reiteration of the 'yes'. Thank you so much for taking the time to share it with us. I'd never read this before xx
A spoken word poem by Sarah Kay & Phil Kaye - When Love Arrives
I assume this isn't the first poem I've ever liked. However, it is The One for me. When the poems introduced in school often felt too complex and unreachable; this one I had a huge impact on me. It was so full of emotion and power yet relatable.
Also, I don't think I even knew spoken-word existed before this.
Love it. SO well performed. Those perfect pauses. The comedy mixed with poignancy. The meaning behind it. Oh so much to enjoy here. Don't you wish we had this sort of poetry taught to us at school? Imagine how differently it could make you feel about poetry. Fine, return to the trickier ones, but oh to start somewhere a little more accessible. My daughter is reading such a simple but entirely unrelatable (to a 14yo) poem in school right now and she hates it. Sigh.
It's funny, I've only watched clips of performances and never read anything of his. I'm going on hols soon, so I'm stocking up on reading material, will definitely check his book out. Thanks for the recommendation.
My first was Dylan Thomas poems studied at A Levels in England, especially ‘And Death Shall Have No Dominion’. In motherhood I like Holly McNish’s poems, her book ‘Nobody Told Me’ is great!
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost.
i read them both at around the same time and remember thinking how much of a curiosity poetry was, especially that it could be so dissimilar, and that i loved that fact.
Tennyson’s Crossing the Bar might have been a funny poem to fall in love with at a young age, being about death and all. But I loved it and memorized it and love it still. It might not be the best first, but it was one of the firsts.
people are sniffy about mary oliver?? they can sniff [redacted for politeness]. sometimes things are popular for good reason.
one early influence i remember because i recently found a verse i wrote inspired by it wasn’t even a poem, but a poetic technique in prose. in winnie the pooh, a.a. milne writes that ”the sun had kicked off its covers” to describe sunrise, and that personification lit up my imagination. i was around 8 or so at the time i think. and of course winnie the pooh contains some fun verses too! and delightful ink drawings by ernest shepard. just a wellspring of inspiration for me.
Like many others I grew up reading Larkin's poems, and loved them, but went off poetry for a long while before I discovered Mary Oliver!! Wild Geese is what brought me back, I love it so much, those first lines.... divine!!
I love Please Mrs Butler, Nelly - this whole collection is such great fun. I might have to go digging and see if I still have my copy!
I have so many poems that have reached and shaped me and that hold real significance in my life, but I think the first was probably Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll.
My Grandpa was a remarkable and sometimes surprising man. He was quiet, contemplative, kind, fiercely intelligent, a brilliant mathematician and skilled engineer. He would also often recite poetry, out of the blue, and even though he passed away when I was only 11 or so, I can still bring to mind his gentle voice intoning the words of Jabberwocky. He spoke it with such quiet conviction and filled it with such meaning. Even at such a young age, I remember being delighted that a string of nonsense words could conjure such a vivid story. It’s the first poem I learnt by heart and still fills me with a thrilling sense of the possibility of language when words - even nonsense ones - are hung together just so.✨
I think this was the first time I remembered actually feeling a feeling when I heard poetry read aloud as a teenager, and realising how people could love each other so much.
It's always bothered me that I hated listening to and reading poetry at secondary school (damn you sale grammar) despite loving to write my own, and I always come back to this. I am also Scottish, and also love the gorgeous actor who read it aloud (eeee) in 4 weddings and a funeral.
This is the first that I remember from childhood. Oh the joy when daddy fell into the pond! I still have the ladybird book that introduced me to this, and frequently spout it at my kids!
We had Please Mrs Butler too Nelly! I loved how much my Mum loved reading it to us.
My reception teacher used to read this to us (I loved Mrs Bennion - I think I mostly loved how much she loved this poem)…
A BABY SARDINE BY SPIKE MILLIGAN
A baby sardine
Saw her first submarine:
She was scared and watched through a peephole.
"Oh come, come, come,"
Said the sardine's mum.
"It's only a tin full of people."
I've just read this one out loud to the kids who are sat around my kitchen table currently. It got the odd smile. Which compared to some of my attempts to get them to love poetry I will take, haha. Thank you xx
I found Philip Larkin in the town library when I was 12. I opened it to the thrilling This Be The Verse. For a girl struggling her way through a difficult childhood, caring for a mentally ill mother and a younger brother, the idea that a complete stranger - a grown man - could see me and understand my soul completely blew my mind. I ended up escaping, chasing Larkin to Hull University where he had been librarian. He had sadly died by the time I arrived, but his small, precise handwriting was still all over the library index cards. Larkin has followed me through life. Most recently I became friends with a woman I met on the beach. We shared our mutual love of poetry and ran down to the sea together shouting "they fuck you up, your mum and dad." 😂
Oh this story! The library index cards. The running to the sea. The connecting with someone else who loves the same poetry as you. It's just all so good. And I'd not read that Philip Larkin poem for the longest time. I smiled my way through it once again with my coffee just now. I've not read much more of his work, any advice on where to start?? Thank you. x
I think The Whitsun Weddings is his best collection I think. Reading it again now there’s so much I’d like to debate with him. I think he was exceptionally lonely and his ridicule of the family was a bit performative and self justifying. But you can’t get away from the utter perfection of his poetry.
Firat I recall to love is Swedish poetess Karin Boije here is an english translation
”YES, OF COURSE IT HURTS
Yes, of course it hurts when buds are breaking.
Why else would the springtime falter?
Why would all our ardent longing
bind itself in frozen, bitter pallor?
After all, the bud was covered all the winter.
What new thing is it that bursts and wears?
Yes, of course it hurts when buds are breaking,
hurts for that which grows
and that which bars.
Yes, it is hard when drops are falling.
Trembling with fear, and heavy hanging,
cleaving to the twig, and swelling, sliding -
weight draws them down, though they go on clinging.
Hard to be uncertain, afraid and divided,
hard to feel the depths attract and call,
yet sit fast and merely tremble -
hard to want to stay
and want to fall.
Then, when things are worst and nothing helps
the tree's buds break as in rejoicing,
then, when no fear holds back any longer,
down in glitter go the twig's drops plunging,
forget that they were frightened by the new,
forget their fear before the flight unfurled -
feel for a second their greatest safety,
rest in that trust
that creates the world.
Translated into English by David McDuff in "Karin Boye: Complete poems".
This is just so beautiful. That reassuring reiteration of the 'yes'. Thank you so much for taking the time to share it with us. I'd never read this before xx
I’m so Happy you like it. To mee it is even greater in Swedish the original language
This is stunning! Thank you for sharing.
A spoken word poem by Sarah Kay & Phil Kaye - When Love Arrives
I assume this isn't the first poem I've ever liked. However, it is The One for me. When the poems introduced in school often felt too complex and unreachable; this one I had a huge impact on me. It was so full of emotion and power yet relatable.
Also, I don't think I even knew spoken-word existed before this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPG6nJRJeWQ&t=11s
Love it. SO well performed. Those perfect pauses. The comedy mixed with poignancy. The meaning behind it. Oh so much to enjoy here. Don't you wish we had this sort of poetry taught to us at school? Imagine how differently it could make you feel about poetry. Fine, return to the trickier ones, but oh to start somewhere a little more accessible. My daughter is reading such a simple but entirely unrelatable (to a 14yo) poem in school right now and she hates it. Sigh.
absolutely!
That is so gorgeous and their reading so perfectly synchronised. I also love love Phil Kaye's 'My Grandmothers Ballroom' https://youtu.be/4EqWATWttog?si=aAqXySTPIpEel7lZ
That is so gorgeous and their reading so perfectly synchronised. I also love love Phil Kaye's 'My Grandmothers Ballroom' https://youtu.be/4EqWATWttog?si=aAqXySTPIpEel7lZ
Ahh, he's such a great performer! Thanks for sharing, I'd had only read this poem before, but this performance is even better.
PS. I do recommend his book Date & Time.. there were quite a few great ones in there in addition to this that are worthy to be earmarked. :)
It's funny, I've only watched clips of performances and never read anything of his. I'm going on hols soon, so I'm stocking up on reading material, will definitely check his book out. Thanks for the recommendation.
Oo, Oo, Spike Milligan - on the Ning Nang Nong!
On the Ning Nang Nong
Where the Cows go Bong!
and the monkeys all say BOO!
There's a Nong Nang Ning
Where the trees go Ping!
And the tea pots jibber jabber joo.
On the Nong Ning Nang
All the mice go Clang
And you just can't catch 'em when they do!
So its Ning Nang Nong
Cows go Bong!
Nong Nang Ning
Trees go ping
Nong Ning Nang
The mice go Clang
What a noisy place to belong
is the Ning Nang Ning Nang Nong!!
*
Teapots jibber jabber joo-ing had me in stitches. For someone who loved rules and hated slapstick this was wonderful.
I also had Please Mrs Butler!!! Loved it!
My first was Dylan Thomas poems studied at A Levels in England, especially ‘And Death Shall Have No Dominion’. In motherhood I like Holly McNish’s poems, her book ‘Nobody Told Me’ is great!
I adore Holly McNish! Nobody Told Me is such a fabulous collection.
somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
by e.e. cummings
and
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost.
i read them both at around the same time and remember thinking how much of a curiosity poetry was, especially that it could be so dissimilar, and that i loved that fact.
The Flea by John Donne
Tennyson’s Crossing the Bar might have been a funny poem to fall in love with at a young age, being about death and all. But I loved it and memorized it and love it still. It might not be the best first, but it was one of the firsts.
people are sniffy about mary oliver?? they can sniff [redacted for politeness]. sometimes things are popular for good reason.
one early influence i remember because i recently found a verse i wrote inspired by it wasn’t even a poem, but a poetic technique in prose. in winnie the pooh, a.a. milne writes that ”the sun had kicked off its covers” to describe sunrise, and that personification lit up my imagination. i was around 8 or so at the time i think. and of course winnie the pooh contains some fun verses too! and delightful ink drawings by ernest shepard. just a wellspring of inspiration for me.
For me it was the Romantics, Keats and Shelley and Wordsworth and Coleridge. “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44477/ode-on-a-grecian-urn) and “A few lines composed above Tintern Abbey”(https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45527/lines-composed-a-few-miles-above-tintern-abbey-on-revisiting-the-banks-of-the-wye-during-a-tour-july-13-1798) are just two I loved.
Then I fell in love with Neruda in grad school, especially his odes like “Ode to clothing” (https://www.poetseers.org/nobel-prize-for-literature/pablo-neruda-1971/pablop/clothing/). Really all of his poems are amazing.
Like many others I grew up reading Larkin's poems, and loved them, but went off poetry for a long while before I discovered Mary Oliver!! Wild Geese is what brought me back, I love it so much, those first lines.... divine!!
Love this as a theme for discussion, and super looking forward to reading everyone's comments!
No my first poem but one that I return to often and that continually delights me is Paul Adrian's Robin in Flight:
Let’s imagine for a second that the robin
is not a contained entity moving at speed
through space, but that it is a living change,
unmaking and remaking itself over and over
by sheer unconscious will, and that
if we were to slow down the film enough
we would see a flying ball of chaos,
flicking particles like Othello counters,
air turning to beak in front just as tail transforms to air behind,
a living being flinging its changes at a still universe.
This would require infinite alignments. Each molecule
privy to the code of its possible settings,
the capacity of a blade of grass to become
the shadow of a falling apple by pure force
of the tree’s instinct. Every speck of world with the potential
to become stone, dog’s breath, light twisted through glass,
filth under fingernails, the skin’s bend at the bullet’s
nudge the moment before impact,
the thought of a robin in flight,
the thought of the thought of a robin in flight.
I love Please Mrs Butler, Nelly - this whole collection is such great fun. I might have to go digging and see if I still have my copy!
I have so many poems that have reached and shaped me and that hold real significance in my life, but I think the first was probably Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll.
My Grandpa was a remarkable and sometimes surprising man. He was quiet, contemplative, kind, fiercely intelligent, a brilliant mathematician and skilled engineer. He would also often recite poetry, out of the blue, and even though he passed away when I was only 11 or so, I can still bring to mind his gentle voice intoning the words of Jabberwocky. He spoke it with such quiet conviction and filled it with such meaning. Even at such a young age, I remember being delighted that a string of nonsense words could conjure such a vivid story. It’s the first poem I learnt by heart and still fills me with a thrilling sense of the possibility of language when words - even nonsense ones - are hung together just so.✨
“Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe”
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42916/jabberwocky
https://web.cs.dal.ca/~johnston/poetry/stopclocks.html
I think this was the first time I remembered actually feeling a feeling when I heard poetry read aloud as a teenager, and realising how people could love each other so much.
It's always bothered me that I hated listening to and reading poetry at secondary school (damn you sale grammar) despite loving to write my own, and I always come back to this. I am also Scottish, and also love the gorgeous actor who read it aloud (eeee) in 4 weddings and a funeral.
Then…….https://www.yourdailypoem.com/listpoem.jsp?poem_id=58
This is the first that I remember from childhood. Oh the joy when daddy fell into the pond! I still have the ladybird book that introduced me to this, and frequently spout it at my kids!
“Annabell Lee”, by Poe