National Poetry Day

In a recent question and answer session promoting the Cheltenham Literary Festival, Carol Ann Duffy said,

"For me, poetry is the music of being human. And also a time machine by which we can travel to who we were and to who we will become"

 *Collective sigh of wonderment* The music of being human is the most perfect description of what poetry is, and because it is National Poetry Day I thought I'd offer up a  list of some of my favourite musicians. In no particular order,

W B Yeats
Paul Celan
Hugo Williams
Simon Armitage
John Masefield
Sylvia Plath
Wendy Cope
Paul Muldoon
Rupert Brooke
James Fenton
and the emerging talent of West Country poet Deborah Harvey...

I shall have The White Birds by W B Yeats going round in my head all day now – the first chords of poetry that I remember hearing...
Which poets will you be celebrating on National Poetry Day?

Be Controversial

I've had a line from one of James Fenton's poems kicking around in my head for ages now: Every victim is an accomplice.  It's such a chilling thought - that in a way we collude in our own misfortunes, and I am sure that some who have been subject to domestic violence might take issue with what Fenton is saying. 

However, in creative writing terms, I think it has mileage. It is an intriguing and unsettling notion, and if your reader is intrigued and unsettled, then they are engaging intensely with what you are writing. If it makes them (and you) look at something in a different way, then in a sense your work as an author is done.  I'm not suggesting that you should be controversial for controversy's sake, as you would end up telling a story that is merely gratuitous, but what I am saying is that you shouldn't be afraid of dark and tricky themes, as working  at the outer reaches of your comfort zone is probably where you will write best. 

As if to prove this point,  Deborah Harvey, in her new collection of poems Communion, (from the sequence Iago) sums up the whole difficult dynamic...

I shall dismantle you and smile

You will not notice how. 

I’ll only hurt you 

as much as you allow.

Perhaps it could be another writing door for you to open?