The Summer Day — Poetry is for everyone #1
A new weekly offering for the poetically curious
I love poetry. Like LOVE it. And I know that’s a little niche but as I touched on in my birthday post on William Wordsworth, I think a lot of poetry and literature is done a dreadful disservice by the education system and if you don’t have an established relationship to either prose or poetry, or both, before entering those hallowed halls, they will likely put you off for life.
The great lie we are taught at school is that poetry and literature is inaccessible and needs to be dissected in order to be understood before it can be enjoyed, but I think the opposite is true and immersing yourself in it fully just for the joy of it is the way in, just like learning a new language.
Have you ever sent someone a song to tell them how you feel because you couldn’t put it into words and didn’t know how else to express it? I believe poetry transcends language in the same way. I think we could all reach for poetry more just as we do with music, when prose isn’t enough. I also think it’s romantic as hell!
When I watch Shakespeare, or a film with subtitles, or even something that’s artistically original and unique, I find it can take a few minutes to ‘get my ear in’ to tune in to the world of the play or that artist. It demands a little patience but the reward of fresh inspiration and creative fulfilment always makes it worthwhile. So I’d love to invite you to get curious and join me for a new weekly offering of poetry to see how it makes you feel and if it does anything for you. If nothing else I promise to keep it diverse and interesting - I’m sure some poets will speak to you more than others - but my hope is that it will speak to a part of you that may have lain dormant for a while, or perhaps never even been explored, or introduce you to some new writers if poetry is already something you’re into.
I will be curating the selection intuitively so it is also my intention to inspire you each week and speak to some numinous aspect of our collective at the same time. If you’re someone who has an interest in lyrics or language, discovering new voices and artists, or if you think of yourself as creatively curious, this is for you, particularly if you have felt excluded from poetry in the past.
I will send a new poem out every Saturday morning (UK time) ready for when you wake up. It’s an existential classic and one of my faves, I hope you enjoy!
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The Summer Day
by Mary Oliver
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?
I am now an affiliate of Bookshop.org so if you’d like to read more from any of the featured artists on our growing poetry curation, I have put together a selection on my page <3
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