Wild and Precious

A lovely photo I took last year in Germany, while we were visiting with Bodecea.

Lately I have discovered the beautiful poetry of the American writer Mary Oliver. She writes so joyously and so compellingly about nature; its myriad, minutiae activity and its huge importance. I have Why I wake early from our local library. Have you read her poems?

This image is from http://davidsheffield.wordpress.com/2011/10/31/999/

Some wonderful thoughts from Mary, which give me so much to think about in just a handful of simple but beautiful words.

This print is from http://sarahlondon.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/what-is-it/

Things I once knew

Keats

In the early 90s, I did a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major study in English Literature. Reams of essays I wrote on Shakespeare and Marlowe, Keats, Shelley and Byron, Tennyson and Arnold. And then I moved onto other things, decided my major study should be history, and that was kind of that. But lately I have been remembering all the beautiful poetry that I read then and I am beginning to rediscover it. The wonderful series, "The Romantics" (hosted by Peter Ackroyd) has helped me to revisit these poems and, actually, to get a bit more out of them than I did twenty years ago! My favourite at the moment is Keats. Do you read poetry? Or is there something you once immersed yourself in and then forgot?

To Summer

To pause a little

and feel the sun

To look up
into the endless blue

To listen to
the hum of insects

To watch the baby birds
try out uncertain feet

To smell
the ripening plums

To summer

My thumb instead of an onion...

I have long been a fan of the writer Sylvia Plath. At school, we had to learn "The Applicant" for our English Lit exam and in first year uni, I read "The Bell Jar" for the first time (my copy is now well thumbed). While I realise many people are perhaps ambivalent about Plath due to the tendency for her poetry to appeal to angsty university undergrads (!) or for the choices she made in her own life - I continue to just love the way she uses language. If I could manage even a part of what she did with my own writing, I'd be very happy! This poem, "Cut", is a delight for me. Such richly envisaged, cleverly employed words - and crafting such a piece about something so commonplace as cutting your finger while cooking. Brilliant. I was especially thrilled to find clips on You Tube with Plath herself reading her poems. That voice!

Her more sombre and complex poems are on You Tube too and are equally wonderful, but I leave you to listen to those of your own choosing. They are heavy going and not for the heavy-of-heart.

Have a beautiful weekend :)