Poetry Please!

I attended my first Burns' Night Supper this year.  I was surprised by two things.  First, the whisky, which I thought was delicious (I wonder whether this is a sign of ageing that a drink which seemed unpleasant in my younger days now seemed quite the opposite, or perhaps it was just good quality whisky!). Second, the poetry, and this really was a surprise to me.

The gathering was mainly friends and family of the friends who had invited us and they all knew one another well.  After food we sat in the lounge and read 3 poems we had brought with us to one another - any poems.  It was clear, generally speaking,  that the older people had spent some time choosing poems that meant something to them whereas the younger ones (myself included) had leaved through a few poetry books or looked online just before coming out. It is not often as an adult that someone reads to you is it?  It was a real joy, some people read with such feeling and emotion that the poem took on a new life and evoked images, fragrances and memories.

I have never been a poetry lover although I have been given poetry books as gifts and so assume others think that I am!  I like the idea of poetry but I am not very confident about it.  I believe this goes back to school days when I would form a view about a poem to then be told by the teacher what it was actually infact about and I discovered that I was usually wrong and had no true understanding.  When I lived and worked in London I always used to enjoy the poems on the Underground and if my favourites were in the carriage in which I was travelling I always used to take this as the sign of a good day ahead!

So one of my challenges for this month has been to waste a bit of time with some poetry.  To look at it on the page, to read it aloud to myself and to see what I think and feel about it.  I hope to collect three poems for next year's Burns' Night Supper (assuming we get another invitation!) which have meant something to me during the year.

I have been helped along by the Times and The 30 Most Romantic Poems published a week ago Saturday.  I was particularly taken with "Valentine" by Carol Ann Duffy in which an onion is given as a valentine gift. 

My son also wrote a poem which he later explained to me and it didn't mean what I thought it meant but I decided that my own interpertation is valid and perhaps said something about me and what I was thinking when I read it - in truth he wasn't overly impressed with this approach but I did confess to having a history of inaccurately understanding poetry.

So if you have any poems that you would like to share with me I will take the time to read them and ponder!

A Poem about Snow by Caleb Walton

As I stand for a purpose
in the blocked night,
when the ground is covered by the
white blanket that causes havoc.

I stand for a purpose,
as I look for the reason
then the light enters and stays,
but the havoc remains.

I stand for a purpose
the light is still there,
but the night is still
blocked, this purpose is complete.