Tag Archives: poets

The Poetry Library

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If you have published a collection of poetry, the Poetry Library (based at London’s Southbank Centre) will consider stocking your work (including books from small presses and self-published titles).

The Poetry Library’s website states:

• The library contains 200,000 items and is growing all the time
• We acquire two copies of each book and audio title, one for reference and one for loan
• We aim to stock all poetry titles published in the UK with a representation of work from other countries including work in parallel text and English translation
• An exhibition space featuring works by artists engaging with the Library’s collection, text and poetry in general, and projects and events at Southbank Centre
• The librarians meet once a month to consider self-published and small press items for the collection and will always respond to those who submitted something for consideration”.

To find out more about the Poetry Library or to contact them please visit, http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/about/.

Umbrella

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You left your umbrella behind
For me to find.
There were no ties
To bind,
Just passing sighs
And me for a moment seeing
A human being.

I never saw you again
But when
Recollection stirs
Of brief affairs,
I see in my mind
Ducks on a girl’s umbrella
Long since left behind
For a man to find.

The Rod That Destroys

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The rod that destroys
Girls and boys,
Rises in expense.
A brief recompense
Of joys
For the boys
(Perhaps),
Followed by a collapse.

Girls check clocks,
And scrabble for socks
On floors
Where many have searched before.
Then comb their hair
As boys look on,
Willing them to be gone.

Recollection

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You left your heels behind.
It is no particular bind
For you
To lose them, its true,
But what am I to do
With a lady’s shoe?

I remember your voice
(Redolent of private school).
I played the fool
(It was my choice).

You left your shoes under the bed.
Few words where said.
There was no love to lose
As a thing never started
Leaves no one broken hearted.
Enough said.

Beauty is truth, and truth beauty

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From time to time, a line of poetry pops into my head. I can’t shake off the words of the poet and remain a little restless until the author of said lines has been discovered by me.

Recently the following lines kept running around in my mind

“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”

A quick Google search reveals that the above beautiful words where penned by John Keats and appear in his Ode on a Grecian Urn

The internet is often attacked for “dumbing down” literature in that it fosters a desire for instant gratification (the wish for easily digestable bite-sized entertainment in the form of stories, poems etc).

There is, in my opinion an element of truth in this criticism. However the internet does, at it’s best open up almost instantaneous access to the world of literature and, in the case of the lines sighted above, enabled me to quickly ascertain their origin.

Kevin

The Tabloids Say

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The tabloids say
“They slunk away
As the grey
Dawn
Did warn
Of another dismal day
For old London Town”.
The clergyman does frown
And putting the newspaper down
Remarks “I see,
The papers have poets in their fee.
All I can say
Is there will be hell to pay
When she reads that, later today …