Poetry for life
- 4 Oct 07, 12:13 PM
Poetry is for life, not just National Poetry Day. Look, don΅―t try to hide it, I can hear you yawning from here. And no wonder. How many of us associate poetry with long afternoons in school when you thought you were literally going to die of boredom. Talk about being scarred for life! Of course a big part of the problem is total lack of relevance. What 14 year old really cares about daffodils ΅®flutttering and dancing in the breeze΅±, and how many of you had to learn that poem by Byron, The Destruction of Sennacherib. ΅°The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, and his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold.΅± What΅―s all that about and why would you care?
The good news for me is that eventually I did learn to love poetry - Robert Frost, Seamus Heaney, Shakespeare΅―s sonnets and Pablo Neruda. Poetry is one of those things you grow into. It΅―s all about emotion and experience and how we look at the world around us. Because of that can I urge you today, National Poetry Day, to pick up one of those poetry anthologies you see in bookshops, you know, kind of a poetry΅―s greatest hits, and you΅―re bound to find something in it that you can completely relate to. Just look at this poem by Jenny Joseph. How many of us ladies don΅―t want to grow old disgracefully? I certainly do. So be warned, this is what you can expect!
When I am an old woman,
I shall wear purple - -
With a red hat which doesn't go,
and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension
on brandy and summer gloves and satin sandals,
And say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
and gobble up samples in shops
and press alarm bells
and run with my stick along public railings,
and make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
and pick flowers in other people's gardens
and learn to spit!
You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
and eat three pounds of sausages at a go,
or only bread and pickles for a week,
and hoard pens and pencils
and beermats and things in boxes.
But now we must have clothes that keep us dry,
and pay our rent
and not swear in the street,
and set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner
and read the papers.
But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me
are not too shocked and surprised
when suddenly I am old,
And start to wear purple!
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why does no one ever mention Northern Ireland's performance poetry scene in these articles. One of the most common things to here a first timer say at a gig like bookfinders is "I hated poetry at school but I really enjoyed this".
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Gerard you are so right. Nothing brings poetry alive better than the writer performing their own work - unless they're a rubbish talker of course! Could I also recommend slam poetry. You get a real cross section of styles and themes as the poets perform against the clock. Who says poetry can't be exciting!
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I agree. I recently won the belfast performance poetry cup and came second in the all-Ireland slam in May.
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