Do you read poetry?

by Adrian Sroka
3rd March 2014

I find poetry inspiring. Who are your favourite poets?

Replies

Rosa, I whole-heartedly agree with your comments.

Tennyson is a particular favourite amongst my collection.(Cursed be the social lies that warp us to the living truth - Alfred Lord Tennyson)

Also, Wordsworth, De la Mare, Lear and Frost. Certain poems resound with unforgettable thought-provoking verse. A single line can inspire me. I flick through pages and select the poems that are easily understood before I progress to the more complicated. I don't understand all the poems I read and I probably misinterpret the meaning of many others, but that does not diminish the enjoyment.

Reading poetry should be a pleasure not an ordeal.

Eliot - Genuine poetry can communicate before it's understood

I used to write poetry. This is the last poem I wrote.

Poetry

Heat of Imagination,

Rhythm of life.

A Speaking Picture,

Beauty, with Truth.

A Sip of Nectar

Blossom, fragrance.

I recommend these four books if you like free verse.

Love That Dog and Heartbeat by Sharon Creech. Heartbeat was nominated for the Carnegie Medal.

Cloud Busting by Malorie Blackman. It won the Smarties Silver Award.

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse. It won the Newbery Medal.

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Adrian Sroka
03/03/2014

Yes Adrian, I read a lot of poetry. I think it helps with writing prose. Rhythm is important in both genres. The sound of prose is just as important as the sound of poetry. I always try reading everything I write aloud before deciding if it will stay the way it is.

I like Keats very much but I am into the recently dead like Hughes, Larkin and Seamus Heaney and those still surviving, for example Mimi Kalvati, Julia Copus and Gillian Clarke, oh and of course Wendy Cope and Maya Angelou.

How strange is that? I don't insist the men are dead before I can read and enjoy their work.

What do you read and whose work do you enjoy. Do you write poetry?

best wishes,

rosa

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03/03/2014