Theme Thursday -
The Winds of Change
This is Carol Ann Duffy,
The UK's first female poet laureate
The UK's first Scottish poet laureate
The UK's first lesbian poet laureate
Holy moley - talk about the winds of change. It gives me great pleasure to say that I managed to find a brand-new, beautiful, evocative, touching Theme Thursday poem by Ms. Duffy herself.
"The words of poems are nails which tack the wind to a page, so that the gone hour when your kite pulled you over the field blows in your hair."
Here is the entire poem:
The Words Of Poems
The words of poems are nails which tack the wind to a page,
so that the gone hour when your kite pulled you over the field blows in your hair.
They're hand-mirrors, a poem's words, holding the wept tears on your face, like a purse holds small change, or the breath that said things.
They're fishing-nets, scooping sprats and tiddlers out of a stream or the gleaming trout that startled the air when you threw it back. The words of poems are stars, dot-to-dots of the Great Bear, the Milky Way your telescope caught; or breves filled with the light of the full moon you saw from your bedroom window; or little flames like the tongues of Hallowe'en candles.
The words of poems are spells, dropping like pennies into a wishing-well, remember the far splash? They're sparklers, scrawling their silver loops and hoops on the night, again in your gloved fist on November the Fifth.
They're goldfish in their sad plastic bags at the fair, you stood there. The words of poems are coins in a poor man's hat; the claws of a lost cat.
The words of poems are who you were.
- Carol Ann Duffy
Source: Mirror.co.uk
Click here to see an interview with Ms. Duffy about her work and about her decision to accept the position of poet laureate. The interview was conducted by Charlotte Higgins of The Guardian.
Over in the sidebar, you'll see that I've posted another one of Ms. Duffy's poems. By the way, I am still posting a daily poem there, even though National Poetry Month is over.
And in case you think I've forgotten that this post is not supposed to be All Duffy, All the Time, but a post about the wind, I give you The Boss, singing about the wind and a bad moon.
More Theme Thursday here.
32 comments:
Okay, you win. You brought on the Boss. You rule. And so does he.
Those are some good poems by Duffy, whose work I am not familiar with-- love the bit about the onion being a moon in brown paper; & you were right to draw special attention to the beginning of "The Words of Poems"-- that's fantastic-- the nails, the kite, the hour in your hair.
Thanks for sharing this. I wouldn't have known about her otherwise.
I can't seem to get anyone's Youtube today -probably just me.
Nice mix of artists!
way to combine a badass poet with the best rocker of all time!
Ronda, thank you. Thank you very much (bowing). Oops. Wrong artist.
John, yeah. Every stanza had something that I wanted to hold up and say Look! Look!
Clever, you can't hear Bruce? That's bad. I hope your computer feels better soon.
Silver, it's a product of my confused mind. What can I say?
Fellow-ette - thank you for reminding me about Duffy. Yes, badass indeed. Duffy-Springsteen is a natural pairing, isn't it?
Love the Boss.
Didn't know the writings of Duffy, so thank you for the introduction.
Dakota Bear, I'm just learning about Duffy. It's difficult to find her poems online, so I think Amazon is going to be getting some more of my business very soon. I'm glad you enjoyed her poems.
Good post. I enjoyed the variety on "wind".
love it. lots of good stuff here...my fav line is "The words of poems are nails which tack the wind to a page". nice imagery.
Wonderful poem, and great videos. The Boss is always a good choice!
I love Before You Were Mine. Do all daughters romanticize their mothers that way? I do.
Lizzy - thanks. I had originally planned to work with wind pronounced as in "wind the clock" -but then Duffy came along...
Brian, that's my favourite line, too -except maybe "holding the wept tears on your face". So little time, so many beautiful words.
Thank you, Wings. They don't make 'em like that anymore. Sigh.
Kitty, yes, I suspect we all do.
I love the line about the goldfish in the sad plastic bags -- oh, and the final line, of course. That really rings true.
Thanks for introducing me to her.
Kat
LOVE that song with Bruce - hope he plays it in his concert here in July :-)
Kat, your problem is the same as mine. I keep finding new lines that speak to my condition.
Dot-Com - you get to see Bruce? Ahhhh.
Well, she has a way with words...very nice poetry, and not so terribly hard to read.
Wow, the Boss does a great job with that song. Cool.
How many winds need to blow before a poet is a poet and who cares about the gender and sexual preference. God we are so weird.
But BRAVO Ms. Duffy and welcome to the future. YES!!
A poet and the boss? Clearly you have thought of everything!
I read about Duffy but all I can think is I wish she'd dress up a bit and comb her hair . .I'm so shallow! I wonder if she'll write anything as Poet Laureat, apparently they don't actually 'have' to produce any work while they hold the title! Strange.
She looks like Lou Reed in that photo.
Tom - yes, I think that's part of her appeal, that she says important things simply and clearly.
Reya - yes. Exactly.
Debbie - What's it called when you buff your fingernails on your shoulder? Is there a name for that gesture? Anyway, that's what I'm doing. ;>)
Baino - I think (or I assume) that the title is a reward for past performance, rather than a job, as such.
Kris - If poets laureate were chosen on the basis of their looks, even Tennyson would never have made the cut.
I did not know of her. My poetry knowledge is unacceptably small, but I'm working on it. Thanks SO much for adding her to my list!
You're welcome, Megan - but it was fellowette who did it. She mentioned Duffy on Twitter, and that set me off on a happy quest.
Sandra, very nice post. And to accept that kind of position...bully for her. And congrats on your first blog award :)
"The words of poems are nails which tack the wind to a page..."
cool.
She is certainly a big change in what can be a very conservative artistic post. (The Youtube didn't want to cooperate.)
Subtorp, thank you very much, on behalf of Ms. Duffy and me,
Reyjr, I think that's still my favourite line,
and Michael, yes, absolutely. The times, they are a' changin'. btw, the YouTube seems to be working okay now, in case you want to try again.
Hi Sandra, I've been wanting to get back to read this post all week-- so glad I did. I especially loved the YouTube piece, her voice in the background, the scraps of images in words and picture. Beautiful. Thank you~
and of course, then there's Bruce.
I also try to catch most of the sidebar poems and enjoy that too!
And congrats on your (ahem, our) award. :)
Duffy was a brave selection as Britain's Boss Poet.And A Wise one....she is Superb!
René and Tony - Thank you for your comments. I became an instant Duffy fan when I read her poems, such as I've been able to find.
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