Welcome to week 11 of my challenge to read at least one poem a week during 2023. I’m actually averaging well over one poem a week so it feels nice to be an over-achiever for once 😃😃
This week I’ve finished reading ‘these are the words‘ by Nikita Gill and for my chosen poem this week, I’ve picked this one which again, is about the fact that we are good enough.
Every Day
Is not an opportunity to improve yourself. Some days are just there for you to accept yourself and look at the clouds. This too is growth. This too is rising. The flowers do it everyday and make the world more beautiful just by being there.
So do you.
Rest today. There is tomorrow.
Nikita Gill
This has echoes for me of the bible passage where Jesus talks about the lilies in the field and that also is about not worrying too much over things. I hope that everyone can find some time to just rest and look at the clouds today.
This week’s poetry has been from a book that I bought when browsing in Waterstone’s last week. It’s a collection of poems by the British/Indian poet Nikita Gill. I didn’t realise when I bought it that it’s actually a YA collection. I have loved the poems that I’ve read so far and will certainly explore her adult poetry too.
The book is labelled as ‘an empowering, feminist collection’ and is about all the things that the poet wishes she had been told when she was younger. I loved the very first poem in the book. It’s only short but it’s something that I could really say to my daughter (or son).
Before We Begin………..
I cannot tell you I have all the answers There are still skeletons in my closet I haven’t learned the names of yet.
Which is to say I’m here for you but I’m a work in progress just like you.
Nikita Gill
This really sums up how I feel sometimes. As a mum, I feel that I should have all the answers for my children but I really don’t!
This week I have been reading 50 Poems to Open Your World collected by Padraig O’Tuama which I picked off the shelf at the library. It’s a collection of poems that Padraig (a poet himself) has chosen which reflect what it is to be alive today and each one is has a reflection on what that poem means to him. It’s mainly quite a modern collection and most of the poets I have never heard of but I’ve really enjoyed reading the wide range of poems in this book.
50 Poems to Open Your World collected by Padraig O’Tuama
One of the poems that stood out for me was this one by Trinidadian poet Roger Robinson.
A Portable Paradise
And if I speak of paradise, then I’m speaking of my grandmother who told me to carry it always on my person, concealed, so no-one else would know but me. That way, they can’t steal it, she’d say. And if life puts you under pressure. trace its ridges in your pocket. smell its piney scent on your handkerchief. hum its anthem under your breath. And if your stresses are sustained and daily, get yourself to an empty room – be it hotel hostel or hovel – and find a lamp and empty your paradise onto a desk: your white sands, green hills and fresh fish. Shine the lamp on it like the fresh hope of morning, and keep staring at it till you sleep
Roger Robinson
I love the idea of a portable paradise, one that you carry around with you where ever you go.
Week 6 of my poetry challenge and I’m definitely getting to like the routine of just picking up a book of poems and reading for a few minutes. I discovered this beautiful book on my shelves and can’t believe that it’s just been sitting there for years. As it’s February, it seemed like an excellent choice for a month that includes Valentine’s Day.
This fairly unromantic poem for St Valentine’s day made me smile.
Valentine My heart has made its mind up And I’m afraid it’s you Whatever you’ve got lined up My heart has made its mind up And if you can’t be signed up This year, next year will do My heart has made its mind up And I’m afraid it’s you
Wendy Cope
Hope you like the poem too. See you next week for week 7 💗💗
Week 5 of my challenge to read at least one poem a week. It’s becoming more of a routine now to flick through my poetry book a couple of times a week and just read two or three poems. The trick is to actually have the poetry book out on the sofa or table and not tucked away on the shelf!!!
I’m still reading this collection of poems designed to uplift you and it has been lovely discovering some favourite poems such as ‘Let No One Steal Your Dreams’ by Paul Cookson and ‘The Door’ by Gustav Horub both of which I used to use with my pupils when I taught full time.
My favourite poem out of the ones that I have read this week though is this gorgeous poem that Kwame Alexander wrote for Maya Angelou.
Majestic
Rise Into the wonder of daybreak
Be a rainbow in the cloud Be a free bird on the back of the night wind Shine on honey!
Walk with joy in your golden feet Over crystal seas and purpled mountains
Know your beauty is a thunder Your precious heart unsalable
Be brave Like a new seed bursting with extraordinary promise
Shine on honey! Know you are phenomenal.
by Kwame Alexander
I love the images in this poem especially the bird on the back of the night wind and the new seed.
It’s the fourth week of my personal poetry challenge to try and read at least one poem a week during 2022. After finishing my book of Thomas Hardy’s poems which often had a sad, reflective tone, I thought I would go for something hopefully a bit more cheerful.
I bought this book a year ago in the Waterstones half price sale and until this week, it’s sat unopened on my bookshelf. This anthology is full of poems to lift you up and keep you going when things get tough because ‘Tomorrow is Beautiful’.
My favourite poem so far is one by Jackie Kay who is a Scottish poet so it seems appropriate to choose this one in the week when we celebrated Burn’s Night. It’s also very apt for New Year being all about those resolutions that we make.
Promise Remember the time of year when the future appears like a blank sheet of paper a clean calendar, a new chance On thick white snow
You vow fresh footprints then watch them go with the wind’s hearty gust. Fill your glass. Here’s tae us. Promises made to be broken, made to last.
Jackie Kay
I love the fact that it’s OK not to keep those resolutions. Some promises are made to be broken, others will last.
Week Three of my 2023 Poetry Challenge and I have finished reading my Thomas Hardy Collection. I skimmed over a couple of the really long poems but rediscovered one of my favourites which is especially appropriate for this week which has been cold and snowy.
Snow in the Suburbs Every branch big with it Bent every twig with it Every fork like a white web-foot Every street and pavement mute Some flakes have lost their way, and grope back upward, when Meeting those meandering down, they turn and descend again. The palings are glued together like a wall And there is no waft of wind with the fleecy fall
A sparrow enters the tree Whereon immediately A snow-lump thrice his own slight size Descends on him and showers his head and eyes And overturns him And near inurns him And lights on a nether twig, when its brush Starts off a volley of other lodging lumps with a rush.
The steps are a blanched slope Up which, with feeble hope, A black cat comes, wide-eyed and thin And we take him in.
Thomas Hardy pub 1925
I just love the images in this poem; the snowflakes meandering and drifting back up, the poor sparrow being overturned and nearly buried by the lump of snow and the thin cat seeking shelter. The rhymes make it easy to read and it seems hard to believe that it was written almost a hundred years ago.
I have loved reminding myself of the poems of Thomas Hardy. Next week I want to move on to something that is new to me though.
Week 2 of my poetry challenge and I have read a few more poems in the Thomas Hardy Collection. I am enjoying the slightly melancholic feel of many of these poems. I think that maybe I appreciate them more now that I am older as many of his poems are about things that he remembers from his youth.
One poem that really struck a chord this week was The Superseded. Hardy writes about how we have to step aside from things as we grow older to allow younger people to take our place. This is the natural order of things but still might be something that we regret. Being deemed too old to take part in something happened to me last year and it’s still a sad feeling to know that it is going on without me.
The Superseded As newer comers crowd the fore We drop behind We who have laboured long and sore Time out of mind And keen are yet, must not regret To drop behind
Yet there are some of us who grieve To go behind Staunch, strenuous souls who scare believe Their fires declined And know none spares, remembers, cares Who go behind
Tis not that we have unforetold The drop behind We feel the new must oust the old In every kind But yet we think, must we, must we Too, drop behind?
Thomas Hardy 1901
Over a hundred years later, this poem sums up exactly how I felt at the time and still feel now. This to me, is the beauty of poetry, that ability to capture feelings in words that stand the test of time.
I love poetry and always have. When I was younger, I used to spend hours writing poems that never saw the light of day, or even more embarrassingly, actually got shown or given to my boyfriend of the time. As a teacher, I used to love reading poems to my class and getting them to write their own. So why don’t I read poetry now?
I have no idea but it’s something that I want to change. So to try and make sure it doesn’t just stay as something that I will do ‘one day’, I’ve decided to set myself a challenge. I always do better when I have a bit of accountability so my challenge is that I will read at least one poem a week and write a short blog post
So here goes week one of my poetry challenge! I decided to keep things simple and revisit some old favourites to begin with.
Thomas Hardy was one of the major authors that I studied for my A level English Literature and I loved his poetry. A lot of the poems are about his love of nature, love itself and time passing and many of them have a slightly melancholic feel to them. He also wrote about the sadness and futility of war years before Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. But when he was young, the Napoleonic wars were still fresh in people’s minds and then there were conflicts such as the Crimea and the Boer War. The effect of war on young soldiers has always been the same and this waste of life is shown so clearly in Drummer Hodge.
Drummer Hodge They throw in Drummer Hodge to rest Uncoffined – just as found His landmark is a kopje-crest That breaks the veldt around And foreign constellations west Each night above his mound
Young Hodge the Drummer never knew Fresh from his Wessex home The meaning of the broad Karoo The Bush, the dusty loam And why uprose to nightly view Strange stars amid the gloam
Yet portion of that unknown plain Will Hodge for ever be His homely Northern breast and brain Grow to some Southern tree And strange-eyed constellations reign His stars eternally
Wicked Witch's Blog 