Today's poet

[Hes]

Its far too long since we had some Anne Michaels on here. I don't think I've posted this for at least 6months

Flowers

There's another skin inside my skin
that gathers to your touch, a lake to the light;
that looses its memory, its lost language
into your tongue,
erasing me into newness.

Just when the body thinks it knows
the ways of knowing itself,
this second skin continues to answer.

In the street - café chairs abandoned
on terraces; market stalls emptied
of their solid light,
though pavement still breathes
summer grapes and peaches.
Like the light of anything that grows
from this newly-turned earth,
every tip of me gathers under your touch,
wind wrapping my dress around our legs,
your shirt twisting to flowers in my fists.

Anne Michaels

[Hes]

This is one of my all time favourite poems by Anne Michaels.

http://crookedshore.wordpress.com/20...anne-michaels/

[Harry H Howgill]

That's really atmospheric. I like that.

The Way Through the Woods


They shut the road through the woods
Seventy years ago.
Weather and rain have undone it again,
And now you would never know
There was once a road through the woods
Before they planted the trees.
It is underneath the coppice and heath,
And the thin anemones.
Only the keeper sees
That, where the ring-dove broods,
And the badgers roll at ease,
There was once a road through the woods.

Yet, if you enter the woods
Of a summer evening late,
When the night-air cools on the trout-ringed pools
Where the otter whistles his mate.
(They fear not men in the woods,
Because they see so few)
You will hear the beat of a horse's feet,
And the swish of a skirt in the dew,
Steadily cantering through
The misty solitudes,
As though they perfectly knew
The old lost road through the woods. . . .
But there is no road through the woods.

Rudyard Kipling

[Harry H Howgill]

Any time!

That just made me laugh a lot!!! Cheers HHH.

[Harry H Howgill]

She really is a bit good isn't she? I love how it really takes off in the last 3 lines.

Its far too long since we had some Anne Michaels on here. I don't think I've posted this for at least 6months

Flowers

There's another skin inside my skin
that gathers to your touch, a lake to the light;
that looses its memory, its lost language
into your tongue,
erasing me into newness.

Just when the body thinks it knows
the ways of knowing itself,
this second skin continues to answer.

In the street - café chairs abandoned
on terraces; market stalls emptied
of their solid light,
though pavement still breathes
summer grapes and peaches.
Like the light of anything that grows
from this newly-turned earth,
every tip of me gathers under your touch,
wind wrapping my dress around our legs,
your shirt twisting to flowers in my fists.

Anne Michaels

[Harry H Howgill]

Simon Armitage was on BBC4 last night doing a bit of a documentary on new technology. He was pretty good. So down to earth.

I can't remember when he said his Pennine Way Walk book was coming out. I have a feeling he said something like 18 months later, which would make it about Christmas. I do hope he puts in a good word about the Fell Poets. I'm now worried what he might say about us!

[Harry H Howgill]

This is one of my all time favourite poems by Anne Michaels.

http://crookedshore.wordpress.com/20...anne-michaels/

Wow. That is amazing. So many emotions and a wonderful yet terrible story behind it.

I love you as if you’ll return
after years of absence.
As if we’d invented
moonlight.

[Harry H Howgill]

Nearly as good as mine!!!! :-)
Enjoyed reading that MG, also quite enjoying this thread.
Never read any poetry, (don't understand most of it) but enjoy writing a rhyme or ditty.
But some of the stuff on here is....how can i put it.... opening me up??
Keep posting chaps

Nearly NB. That Kipling needs to keep working a bit harder.

There was a lovely quote I heard on the radio the other day. I think they were refering to folk music, but it could equally apply to poetry...

"It get's everyone in the end."

I'm glad you are enjoying it.

[Alf]

Simon Armitage was on BBC4 last night doing a bit of a documentary on new technology. He was pretty good. So down to earth.

I can't remember when he said his Pennine Way Walk book was coming out. I have a feeling he said something like 18 months later, which would make it about Christmas. I do hope he puts in a good word about the Fell Poets. I'm now worried what he might say about us!

Finally made it to Dufton today. Better late ...

[Harry H Howgill]

Did you see any more than we did? It was foggy that day!

Finally made it to Dufton today. Better late ...