Stella Pierides

Disappearing Act, Eleanor Ross Taylor’s poem can be read in The Guardian by clicking http://bit.ly/c98Rhi

It is a brilliant self-reflective poem, based on experiencing the human body as a thinking as well as a feeling person.

Winner of the 2010 Poetry Foundation’s Ruth Lilly award, she made the news at a time when she was almost forgotten.  Poetry magazine editor Christian Wiman, commented on her “sober and clear-eyed serenity,”  and her strong reserve. “We live in a time when poetic styles seem to become more antic and frantic by the day, and Taylor’s voice has been muted from the start,” The Guardian reported.  Others, commenting on her award, made strong references to her age.

Her poetry, though, speaks for her talent and originality; her making us see the world anew – in this case, our own body.

Iris Law’s poem “Circumnavigation“

chosen to be included in the 2009 Best of the Net Anthology is a beautiful poem. Read it here:

http://www.asiancha.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=367&Itemid=176

It works on many levels, as Tammy Ho’s critical analysis, and the responses to it (including mine) demonstrate.

http://finecha.wordpress.com/2010/04/04/a-cup-of-fine-tea-iris-law/#comments

The level that hooked me was the one hinting at the hunger for home and the wish to return to it.  Real or imagined, a literal home or a metaphorical one, the womb or country of origin, it is always there, calling. Going round the world, we carry that hunger, that need, hear the siren’s call, knowing at the same time, the impossibility of returning…

Iris Law speaks of the pain of this recognition, the moment “the spear hit home.”

Kavafis knew this problem and wrote about it in his Ithaca.

Odysseus had to find out for himself. Tellingly, he set out again, soon after he returned home.

In this poem, Simic displays a soft, delicate, sensitive and sentimental side. But, be warned, this poem may bring tears to your eyes…

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=171688

Read this poem, then look at a stone, any stone and you will see it differently:

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=181383

Here I collect notes, poems, articles, pictures, news I find interesting, exciting, thought-provoking – without necessarily agreeing with them.

New Poetry Book, Hyphen, by Tania van Schalkwyk

A wonderful meditation on origins, place and the spaces in between. Tania has the gift of writing poems that refresh the soul. Here is a link to her book:

http://www.uctwriters.co.za/hyphen

Gabriel Josipovici, ‘Borges and the Plain Sense of Things’  in readysteadyblog. A great read:

http://www.readysteadybook.com/Article.aspx?page=josipovicionborges

Carol Ann Duffy’s poem 12 Days of Christmas makes my day, everyday. What an alive, current, all-encompassing ode to reality! Thank you Carol Ann Duffy!

http://www.radiotimes.com/content/features/carol-ann-duffy-the-twelve-days-of-christmas/ and article

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/dec/06/poet-laureate-duffy-christmas-poem