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A poem to read in the bath… ‘Valediction’ by Seamus Heaney #poetry #love
The poems that touch me are those that distil a feeling, an experience, an emotion, into a simple few lines. Seamus Heaney was a master of this technique. In Valediction, from the 1966 collection Death...
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A poem to read in the bath… ‘Invictus’ by WE Henley #poetry #courage
William Ernest Henley began to write poetry at the age of twelve, when he was confined to his hospital bed following the amputation of his leg. Best known for Invictus, Henley continued to write poetry...
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A poem to read in the bath… ‘Remember’ by Christina Rossetti #poetry #funeral
Christina Rossetti was 31 when her most famous collection Goblin Market and Other Poems was published in 1862 but perhaps better known are two other poems. Her 1872 poem A Christmas Carol was set to...
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A poem to read in the bath… ‘Sounds of the Day’ by Norman MacCaig #poetry...
The poems of Scottish poet and teacher Norman MacCaig are noted for their simplicity and directness. Irish poet Seamus Heaney described MacCaig’s verse, ‘His poems are discovered in flight, migratory,...
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A poem to read in the bath… ‘Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night’ by Dylan...
Dylan Thomas’s most famous, arguably most familiar, poem is a villanelle with five stanzas of three lines followed by a single stanza of four lines, making a total of 19 lines. It is structured with...
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A poem to read in the bath… ‘What I Learned From My Mother’ by Julia Kasdorf...
Written in 1992 by American poet Julia Kasdorf, What I Learned From My Mother is a poem that crosses time, languages, cultures and continents. Its message is familiar to all women. The rituals of death...
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A poem to read in the bath… ‘My Father’ by Yehuda Amichai #poetry
I came across this very short poem – only six lines – in an anthology. The book has been on my shelf for quite a while and every now and then I pick it up and flick through at random. One day, the page...
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A poem to read in the bath… ‘Poor Girl’ by Maya Angelou #poetry #women
I can hear the sorrow in every word of this woman who feels cheated, cynical in her understanding that she loved a wrong ‘un. This is ‘Poor Girl’ by Maya Angelou. She is angry, talking directly to a...
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A poem to read in the bath… ‘Lark & Merlin’ by Tom Pickard #poetry #nature
Tom Pickard grew up in the working class suburbs of Newcastle upon Tyne and left school at fourteen. Three years later he met poet Basil Bunting and Pickard began his life as a poet. His background in...
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A poem to read in the bath… ‘Invisible Man’ by @MargaretAtwood #poetry
At Christmas I was given Dearly, the slim hardback book of Margaret Atwood’s poems. I’ve never thought of her as a poet but Dearly is a revelation. As with her novels, Atwood crystalises those intense...
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