April 2012

1. A Birthday - Christina Rossetti. Lorraine

2. Rebel's Progress - Tom Earley. Michael

3. Two Trees - Don Patterson. Steve

4. Come Close and Sleep Now - Roger McGough. Hannah

5. Sandpiper - Elizabeth Bishop. Richard

6. Inversnaid - Gerard Manly Hopkins. Richard

7. Elvis's Twin Sister - Carole Ann Duffy. Lorraine

8. Warning - Jenny Joseph. Lorraine

9. Incitement to Disobidience - Tom Earley. Michael

10. Too Much Reading - Tom Earley. Michael

11. Mrs. Darwin - Carole Ann Duffy. Lorraine

12. A Subaltern's Love - John Betjeman. Richard

13. Slough - John Betjeman. Richard

March 2012

Theme: Poems from Wales (2)

1. Beauty - Edward Thomas. Claire

2. Notes on the Art of Poetry - Dylan Thomas. Lorraine

3. History - Owen Shears. Kathryn

4. Ocean - Anon. Jennifer

5.Return to Cardiff - Dannie Abse. Hannah

6. Meeting Place - Gwyn Thomas. Juliette

Richard Burton reads Welsh Incident

March 2012 World Book Day

Theme: Poems from Wales (1)

1. Miracle on St Davids Day - Gillian Clarke. Steve

2. Rebels Progress - Tom Early. Michael

3. All Day It has Rained - Alun Lewis. Hilary

4. Welsh Incident - Robert Graves. Juliette

5. The Miners - Wilfred Owen. Jen

6. The Daffodils - Waldo Williams. Phil

7. The Moor - RS Thomas. Richard

8. The Bright Field - RS Thomas. Terrence

9. The Rhondda - Alun Lewis. Lorraine


Session at Chapter Arts Centre 

March 1st St Davids Day - Part of World Book Day

February 2012

1. Robot Boy - Tim Burton. Phil
From The Melancholy Death of the Oyster Boy
2. Poetry - Pablo Neruda. Lorraine
3. On Hold - Victoria Flute. Juliette
From Through Corridors of Light
4. Somewhere I Have Never Travelled - e.e. cummings. Hannah
5. Untitled - Arseniy Tarkosvsky. Lloyd
6. Oh Tell Me the Truth About Love. W.H Auden. Steve
7. Love After Love - Derek Walcott. Claire
8. Lullaby - Rosemary Normal. Lynda
9. The Burial of the Dead. T.S. Eliot. Les
From The Wasteland
10. Voodoo Girl - Tim Burton. Phil
11. Happiness - Raymond Carver. Claire
12. Late Fragment - Raymond Carver. Steve

Burns Night Scottish Poetry

I'm reading on this Scottish Crowdsourced Poetry Audio Book:http://bit.ly/yA0DgQ

as part of Glasgow Social Media Week for Burns Night (a few nights ago i know!)

It's created by SpokenHerd http://www.spokenherd.co.uk/

Here's how it was made too: http://bit.ly/x7S4XO

Enjoy!

T.S. Eliot Prize Links

Links I found on the Internet about the T.S. Eliot Prize:

Preview

• The Friday Poem Special: T.S. Eliot Prize Preview - Huffington Post UK

Audio Recordings

• T.S. Eliot Prize Readings (Audio) - Huffington Post UK

• John Burnside wins TS Eliot poetry prize: Guardian Books Podcast

The Winner

• John Burnside on T.S. Eliot Prize - The Telegraph

• John Burnside wins most controversial TS Eliot prize in decades - Guardian

Controversy

• Withdrawals from T.S. Prize: Alice Oswald - Guardian / John Kinsella - Guardian

January 2012

1. John Burnside on T.S. Eliot Prize - Telegraph Article Juliette

2. In The National Museum - John Tripp. Michael

3. The Quartet (Pt 3) - T.S. Eliot. Lorraine

4. Poem from Nostalgia (film directed by Andrey Tarkovsky) - poem written by his father. Lloyd

5. Late Show - John Burnside. Juliette

6. Sonnets 27 & 47 - Shakespeare. Hannah

7. Happiness - Raymond Carver. Steve

December 2011

1. Talking Turkey's - Benjamin Zephaniah. Michael

2. On A Good Day - Joanna Newsom (Lyrics). Lloyd

Taken from album Have One On Me

3. Wild Geese - Mary Oliver. Lorraine

4. My Mother Dressing - Toi Derricotte. Juliette

5. The Snow Man - Wallace Steven. Richard

6. Skating On The Lake - William Wordsworth. Steve

7. The Wicked Fairy At The Manger - Ua Fanthorpe. Michael

Podcast

Podcast link to Armistice Day Podcast. Now and Then - Andrew Motion was taken from here.

November 2011

1. Now and Then - Andrew Motion. Juliette

2. Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening - Robert Frost. Glenda

3. A Martian Sends A Postcard Home - Craig Raine. Steve

4. Prayer - Carol Ann Duffy. Richard

5. The Sea - Esther Morgan. Lloyd

6. Ode To My Socks - Pablo Neruda. Lorraine

7. Un-named - Rainer Maria Rilke. Claire

Capital Reads Session

1. Eurydice - Carol Ann Duffy. Juliette

2. It Ain't What It Does - Simon Armitage. Steve

3. Autumn - Philip Larkin. Leona

4. A Case of Murder - Vernon Scannell. Lorraine

5. The Timid Heart - Iona McPhee. Michael

6. A poem from The Nation's favourite Comic Poems. Robert

7. "Do You Think We'll Ever Get To The Earth Sir?" - Sheenagh Pugh. Liz

8. Send Out Your Homing Pigeons - Idris Davies. Caroline

October 2011

1. Mrs Aesop - Carol Ann Duffy. Juliette

The Worlds Wife WBN Edition

2. The Legend - Carol Ann Duffy. Richard

3. Icolate - Susan Richardson. Michael

4. Icelandic - Susan Richardson. Michael

5. Dreams - 10 year old. Lloyd

6. Dad - Lloyds Daughter. Lloyd

7. Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep - Anon. Lorraine

8. Mrs Icarus - Carol Ann Duffy. Juliette

9. All The Gold Is Not Glitter. Lorraine

September 2011

No poems read as we recorded our audio slide show for a Community Force Grant and put it on the Incandescent You Tube Channel

Sting: Song Lyrics

Michael sent on a link to this article:

Sting Explains How He Writes Song Lyrics: http://www.writerswrite.com/blog/925111

Beauty & the Beast Video

Just noticed Mr Gee posted a video of his Beauty and the Beast performance in Hollywood. Its the poem I read out in July's meeting. Thought you may like to 'see' it as well as hear it. Like the way he describes himself as a 'Stand Up Poet'...

Birmingham for Tariq Jahan

Tariq Jahan lost his son, Haroon, in a hit and run incident during the riots in Winson Green, Birmingham on Wednesday

After the evening prayers at the mosque,

came the looters in masks,

and you three stood,

beloved in your neighbourhood,

brave, bright, brothers,

to be who you were –

a hafiz is one who has memorised

the entire Koran;

a devout man –

then the man in the speeding car

who purposefully mounted the kerb …

I think we all should kneel

on that English street,

where he widowed your pregnant wife, Shazad,

tossed your soul to the air, Abdul,

and brought your father, Haroon, to his knees,

his face masked in only your blood

on the rolling news

where nobody's children riot and burn.

CAROL ANN DUFFY

guardian.co.uk, Friday 12 August 2011 23.28 BST

Please find the original Guardian Article here

© 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved

If I Was Your Girl Friend

If I was your girl friend

Would you remember

To tell me all the things you forgot when I was your man?

Hey, when I was your man

If I was your best friend

Would you let me

Take care of you?

Do all the things that only a best friend can

Only best friends can

If I was your girl friend

If I was your girl friend

If I was your girl friend

Would you let me dress you?

Let me help pick out your clothes

Before we go out?

Not that you’re helpless

But sometime, sometime those are the things that being in love’s about

If I was your one and only friend

Would you run to me, if somebody hurt you?

Even if that somebody was me?

Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be

Please

If I was your girl friend

If I was your girl friend

Would you let me wash your hair?

Could I make you breakfast sometime?

Oh, can we just hang out?

I mean, could we go to a movie….

Could we, together?

Coz to me baby

That would be so fine

If I was your girl friend

Baby can I dress you

I mean help you pick out your clothes

Before we go out (if I was your girl friend)

Listen girl, I ain’t saying you’re helpless

But sometime, sometime those are the things that being in love’s about

Listen girl,

Sugar you know what I’m saying to you this evening

Maybe you think I’m being a little sexy tonight

I say I wanna be

All of the things, you are to me

Surely, surely you can see

Is it really necessary for me to go out of the room just because you want to undress?

We don’t have to make children to make love?

You know, we don’t have to make love to have an orgasm…

PRINCE

If I Was Your Girlfriend Video

August 2011

1. The Ted Williams Villanelle

"Don't let anybody mess with your swing."

For Ted Williams, baseball player - Wendy Cope. Michael

2. To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time

Robert Herrick (1591 - 1674). Michael

3. Independent Excerpt - Jane Cordell. Michael

4. Two Headed Boy - Neutral Milk Hotel (lyrics). Lloyd

5. The Life That I Have - Leo Marx. Lorraine

6. If I was Your Girlfriend - Prince (lyrics). Juliette

7. Pastoral - Harry Webb. Michael

8. The Fist - Derek Walcott. Lloyd

9. Birmingham for Tariq Jahan - Carol Ann Duffy (12.08.11.www.guardian.co.uk). Juliette

July 2011

1. Silver - Walter De La Mare. Lorraine

2. When You Are Old - WB Yeats. Claire

3. An Appearance of Success - David Wright. Juliette

Poems On The Underground

4. Nothing To Save - DH Lawrence. Hannah

5. Blackbird - Leslie Saunders. Leona

6. Severn Song - Philip Gross. Steve

7. Fruit Tree - Nick Drake (lyrics). Lloyd

8. Year of The Cat - Al Stewart (lyrics). Lloyd