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Thread: Today's poet

  1. #12821

    Re: Today's poet

    Quote Originally Posted by Alf View Post
    That's sad news about Clive James illness. Here's one he wrote in 2009.



    Beachmaster

    Scanning the face of a crestfallen wave
    He sees his life collapsing to a close,
    A foaming comber racing to its grave.
    But after that one, there are all of those:

    The ranks of the unbroken, the young men
    Completely green, queuing to take their turn
    To die so that the sea might live again.
    That much it took him all his life to learn.

    Propped on her elbow in the burning sand,
    The latest Miss Australia views it all
    As one vast courtship. With a loving hand
    She strokes her thigh as one by one they fall,

    Those high walls in the water. Look at her,
    But shade your sad glance carefully, old man –
    For she will never see you as you were,
    A long way out, before the end began.

    Clive James
    Breathtakingly beautiful...think i may have to familiarise myself more with his work

  2. #12822

    Re: Today's poet

    here is an excerpt from clive james "vertical envelopment" a rather log but brilliant poem...


    Taking the piss out of my catheter,
    The near-full plastic bag bulks on my calf
    As I push my I.V. tower through Addenbrooke’s
    Like an Airborne soldier heading for D-day
    Down the longest corridor in England.
    Each man his own mule. Look at all this stuff.
    Pipes, tubes, air bottles. Some of us have wheels.
    Humping our gear, we’re bare-arsed warriors
    Dressed to strike fear into the enemy,
    But someone fires a flare. Mission aborted.
    On the airfield, the chattering Dakotas
    Have fallen silent. Jump postponed again.
    Stay as you are. Keep your equipment on.
    When cloud and wind are OK in the drop zone
    We hit the sky and leap into the dark.
    Meanwhile just hunker down and get some sleep.
    Look on the bright side. Everyone’s still here.

    http://www.clivejames.com/poems/clive/vertical

  3. #12823
    Master
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    Aug 2009
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    North Yorkshire
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    3,970

    Re: Today's poet

    Really wish I was in London tonight. There is going to be a rain of poems at the South Bank as part of poetry parnassus. Good old Simon Armitage is helping to organise the event.

    http://ticketing.southbankcentre.co....-poems-1000249

  4. #12824
    Grandmaster +
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Ripponden
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    Re: Today's poet

    Quote Originally Posted by freckle View Post
    here is an excerpt from clive james "vertical envelopment" a rather log but brilliant poem...


    Taking the piss out of my catheter,
    The near-full plastic bag bulks on my calf
    As I push my I.V. tower through Addenbrooke’s
    Like an Airborne soldier heading for D-day
    Down the longest corridor in England.
    Each man his own mule. Look at all this stuff.
    Pipes, tubes, air bottles. Some of us have wheels.
    Humping our gear, we’re bare-arsed warriors
    Dressed to strike fear into the enemy,
    But someone fires a flare. Mission aborted.
    On the airfield, the chattering Dakotas
    Have fallen silent. Jump postponed again.
    Stay as you are. Keep your equipment on.
    When cloud and wind are OK in the drop zone
    We hit the sky and leap into the dark.
    Meanwhile just hunker down and get some sleep.
    Look on the bright side. Everyone’s still here.

    http://www.clivejames.com/poems/clive/vertical
    Just read the full version, as you say freckle, brilliant, thanks

  5. #12825

    Re: Today's poet

    Whizz pop!
    I forget time
    I forget responsibility
    For the troubadour
    considers us mere mortals
    (fell) poets


    Simon Armitage's book "Walking Home" is finally out... a riveting read so far!
    Last edited by freckle; 27-06-2012 at 08:18 PM.

  6. #12826

    Re: Today's poet

    Quote Originally Posted by stevefoster View Post
    Just read the full version, as you say freckle, brilliant, thanks
    Glad you liked it steve, its very poignant but so well observed, hope you are well

  7. #12827

    Re: Today's poet

    Quote Originally Posted by Hes View Post
    Really wish I was in London tonight. There is going to be a rain of poems at the South Bank as part of poetry parnassus. Good old Simon Armitage is helping to organise the event.

    http://ticketing.southbankcentre.co....-poems-1000249
    sounded brilliant!

  8. #12828
    Master
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Posts
    6,158

    Re: Today's poet

    Quote Originally Posted by freckle View Post
    Whizz pop!
    I forget time
    I forget responsibility
    For the troubadour
    considers us mere mortals
    (fell) poets


    Simon Armitage's book "Walking Home" is finally out... a riveting read so far!
    So did you get a mention freckle ? I thought that would be the first bit you turned to

  9. #12829
    Master
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Posts
    6,158

    Re: Today's poet

    Bell Heather

    People make songs about your big cousin
    Extravagantly sprawled over mountain after mountain
    They tear him up and he goes off to England
    On the bumpers of cars, on shiny radiators.

    But you're more beautiful and you blossom first,
    In square feet and raggedy circles.
    Your blue travels a hundred yards
    That are a main road for bees.

    If I were an adder, I’d choose you
    For my royal palace. My sliding tongue
    Would savour the thin scent
    Of your boudoirs and banqueting halls.

    A modest immodesty is a good thing,
    Like blaze of blue on a rock face.
    I’ll try it myself. Will the bees come,
    The wild bees, with their white noses?

    Norman MacCaig

  10. #12830
    Grandmaster +
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    Nov 2007
    Location
    Ripponden
    Posts
    17,182

    Re: Today's poet

    Quote Originally Posted by freckle View Post
    Glad you liked it steve, its very poignant but so well observed, hope you are well
    I'm well marra, hope you are too.

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