Date Night
This week’s choices reflect Valentine’s Day, reminding us of the lightness we feel on this day devoted to love, and warning us of the pitfalls.
Pussy Galore
A selection of poems about dogs can only be followed by a selection about cats.
Hounds Free
This week’s theme is dogs, inspired by Loki, the puppy that my stepson Tom and his partner Chloe have newly adopted. Let’s hope he’s not as mischievous as his namesake, though he seems to be making a good start and endearing himself to the family.
Supper Man
This week’s poems were all written by the national poet of Scotland, Robert Burns, who is celebrated on 25 January by a supper of haggis, neeps (turnips) and tatties (potatoes) and plentiful helpings of whisky.
River Deep
This week’s poems celebrate rivers and streams, the waterways that are presently more than somewhat swollen from Storm Christoph’s after-effects. Rudyard Kipling tells us an imaginative pre-history of the Thames in “The River’s Tale”, then Alfred, Lord Tennyson emphasises their timeless nature in “The Brook” and finally Samuel Taylor Coleridge reflects on the passage of time in his “Sonnet: To The River Otter”. Poem 130. The River’s Tale (Prehistoric) And I remember like yesterdayThe earliest Cockney who came my way,When he pushed through the forest that lined the Strand,With paint on his face and a club in his hand. Rudyard Kipling (1865—1936) TWENTY bridges from Tower to Kew —Wanted to know what the River knew,Twenty Bridges or twenty-two,For they were young, and the Thames was oldAnd this is the tale that River told:— “I walk my beat before London Town,Five hours up and seven down.Up I go till I end…
Immortality
This week’s poems are about the human conception of immortality.
Hope Springs Eternal
A new year dawns and perhaps we see glimmers of hope in the news even though the general picture seems rather bleak.
Yule Never Walk Alone
These poems could only ever be about the celebration of Christmas Day, one of the high points of the Christian calendar.
Encouragement
I chose these poems because several of my friends have said to me this week how much they enjoy the choices of poems, and a word of encouragement goes a long way.