I Read Therefore I Am discussion

I hope to post a poem here every week (not by me, don't worry). If you have a favourite poem that you would like me to include - let me know the name and author here and I'll slot it in (don't make it too long though - I'm not the quickest of typists!)

Wilfred Owen's Dulce et Decorum Est moved me when I read it for O-level English Lit, and it's never left me since

If you go to: http://www.poemhunter.com/
then you can search for the poem you want and then just cut and paste it - to save typing :)

Excellent - thanks Laurel - you're a star!

Thanks Ellie, that's a great choice for our first poem-I'm very fond of Wilfred Owen.

Me to Futility was the first poem that made me cry. I'm a bit prone to cry at poetry I'm afraid.

Yes it's poem of the day now - I'm on a mission to read more poetry so this should definitely help - don't forget to let me have any suggestions

How about a bit of Edgar Allen Poe - A Dream Within A Dream?

coming up!

I'm reading the poems of Carol Ann Duffy and two really made me smile Mrs Aesop and Mrs Rip van Winkle. Might one or both of these be suitable?

These made me giggle too - Mrs Rip Van Winkle is up today and I'll save Mrs Aesop for another day - perhaps Monday - when we could all do with a smile :o)

How about a poem by Li-Young Lee entitled "Eating Alone"? It's one of my favorites.

Can I just share this one with everyone?? It's another Michael Symons Roberts poem (Lee posted one of his weeks ago) - I was looking for something for another group cos it was my turn and found this, it's brilliant :

HITCHCOCKEAN

The birds are taking over. Not in rows on high wires,
chittering on rooves at passers-by, fixing a lone child
with their red-ringed, sink-hole eyes, not by massing

on our window-sills at dawn and tap-tap-tapping
with the urgency, hunger, blunt-sense of the wild,
not with a skirl and swoop like smoke cut loose from fire,

but with a single egg inside each one of us,
lodged in the fold between lungs, not felt until the break,
la petite mort when shell cracks and a song begins,

an airless, blood-borne trill, a pulse, a stretch of wing,
which may be dun wren, bird of paradise, dull rook,
and none of us can know what kind is ours,

nor even know for sure it’s there, this skitter,
this arrhythmia, this restlessness, this ache that makes
you walk out, mid-meal, steal a car and disappear.

Oohh. Make me think of John Hurt in Alien!

Wow - I love this one - can't stop reading it

The previous Michael Symons Roberts poem posted was Through a Glass Darkly no. 53

They are both amazing poems - I really want to get his book Drysalter

@ Tracey - you are the 2nd person who has said it reminds them of Alien! I haven't seen it (I know, I know!) so am missing that - what is it in the poem that is like this film?

I know exactly what Tracey means - once you've seen that particular scene - you'll never forget it.

Ha ha, I will have to watch it then. Just something I haven't gotten round to ;)

Hi Laurel. I've tried looking for a YouTube clip but they appear to be blocked but here's a good summary of what happens. Once seen, never forgotten and something that has gone down in movie history! http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/...

Thanks - I will watch it later (hope it isn't too scary) ;)

I really like this Laurel, I think I'll track down his other work. The film is VERY scary! It scared me anyway!

Yeah I reckon I will probable be hiding behind a cushion for most of it! Glad you all liked it

I have never seen Alien but I know the scene referred to and know exactly why the poem brings it to mind - the comparison occurred to me too