Vertigo by Alice Oswald
Here is the first in the series of 20 original poems on the theme of climate change curated by the UK’s poet laureate Carol Ann DuffyMay I shuffle forward and tell you the two minute life of...
View ArticleLet’s go to … Swansea
Dylan Thomas’s birthplace is celebrating its native poet with the first annual Dylan Day on 14 May. We look at attractions poetry-related and not, plus where to eat, sleep and, of course, raise a glass...
View ArticleA Mancunian Taxi-Driver Forsees His Death
By Michael Symmons RobertsOn a radio show some self-help guru saysthe earth will burn out in a hundred yearsso treat each day as an eternity.I am in a taxi when I hear this news,airport-bound on the...
View ArticleThe Solace of Artemis
by Paula Meehan. Part of our series of 20 original poems by various authors on the theme of climate change, curated by the UK’s poet laureate Carol Ann DuffyI read that every polar bear alive has...
View ArticleChildren's poetry quiz: finish the line
Do you think you know your poetry? Well let's find out how good you are with this poetry quiz! It's really simple, just finish the line... Continue reading...
View ArticleThe Daemon Knows by Harold Bloom review – a man of great literary faith
The Yale professor writes confidently about the ‘dozen creators of the American sublime’ he lionises – but he ignores the way power acts on their workWhat more do we have to learn from Harold Bloom? In...
View ArticleRobert Browning's new poem - review: from the archive, 14 May 1873
Mr. Browning takes up in turn all the various problems and enigmas of life as it presents itself in this latter half of the 19th century, but it is beyond his power to supply any solutionRED COTTON...
View ArticleA climate change poem for today: Zoological Positivism Blues by Paul Muldoon
UK poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy curates a series of 20 original poems by various authors on the theme of climate changeCome with me to the petting zooIts waist high turnstile gateCome with me to the...
View ArticleWhy Dylan Thomas deserves his international Day
Thomas wrote with unforgettable eloquence about being human, in an English that remains uniquely Welsh. Gillian Clarke, national poet of Wales, explains why he is great• Open thread: what makes Dylan...
View ArticleOpen thread: what makes Dylan Thomas great?
Celebrate the first Dylan day by showing why the Welsh poet deserves a place in the international calenderWhy Dylan Thomas deserves his international Day“Whatever talents I possess may suddenly...
View ArticlePoster poems: ottava rima
Dating back to Boccaccio, this form has been adopted by everyone from Spenser to Yeats. Now it’s your turnIt’s been a long time since we had a Poster poems challenge based on a poetic form, so I...
View ArticleA climate change poem for today: Extinction by Jackie Kay
UK poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy curates a series of 20 original poems by various authors on the theme of climate changeWe closed the borders, folks, we nailed it.No trees, no plants, no...
View ArticleThe Saturday Poem: Baggage
By Fleur AdcockSealed in their heavy luggage in the holdthey’d brought the encapsulated highlightsof their shed lives: Eva’s sewing machineand her Watteau Doulton dinner service;Sam’s tools, of course;...
View ArticleA climate change poem for today: Scratching for Metaphor in the Somerset...
UK poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy curates a series of 20 original poems by various authors on the theme of climate changeI am here, at the scene of a breaking;broken bits, the metaphor of crushed...
View ArticlePoem of the week: You May Have Heard of Me by Shazea Quraishi
This allegorical coming-of-age story uses the figure of a bear to represent the ordinary yet thrilling process by which adulthood is attainedYou May Have Heard of MeMy father was a bear.He carried me...
View ArticleMehri Kashani obituary
Our friend Mehri Kashani, a poet and writer, who has died aged 79, was deeply admired in Persian literary circles in London, where she lived, and in Iran, her home country, which she left after the...
View ArticleSentenced to Life review – Clive James’s spark is not extinguished
He jokes about each new collection of poetry being written in expectation that it will be his last, but the defining mood of James’s latest is one of grateful gallantryThe punning title of Clive...
View ArticleA climate poem for today: Cantre’r Gwaelod* by Gillian Clarke
UK poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy curates a series of 20 original poems by various authors on the theme of climate changeThe morning after, the beach at Borthis a graveyard, a petrified forestContinue...
View ArticleA climate change poem for today: Causeway by Matthew Hollis
UK poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy curates a series of 20 original poems by various authors on the theme of climate changeBeneath the rain-shadow and washed farmhouses,in the service of the old...
View ArticleKarl Ove Knausgaard and the writers who really do rock
As fans in New York will discover this week, the Norwegian writer’s rock’n’roll reputation is matched by actual drumming in a bona fide band. It seems odd that more writers don’t do likewiseI knew that...
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