I may be wrong, but it seems to me that poetry is making a comeback!

I heard recently that the scary concept of the poetry slam is taking a hold in trendy urban settings of the UK.

So I thought it worth spending some time celebrating someone else’s poetry.

I was just watching another one of the BBC’s poetry films on BBC 4- this time on Lynnette Roberts– the fabulously talented Welsh poet whose creativity was cut short by her experience of mental illness. You can watch it again here.

Something of her style reminded me of a card I have on my wall at work- the one below- by another wonderful poet, this time a Scot, Edwin Morgan.

The picnic

In a little rainy mist of white and grey
we sat under an old tree,
drank tea toasts to the powdery mountain,
undrunk got merry, played catch
with the empty flask, on the pine needles
came down to where it rolled stealthily away –
you lay
with one arm in the rain, laughing
shaking only your wet hair
loose against the grass, in that enchanted place
of tea, with curtains of a summer rain
dropped round us, for a rainy day.

Edwin Morgan

I love this poem.

It takes me to a happy place. Scotland. Michaela and me finding space to fill with each other. The sense of place strong on us, and the changing weather welcome and wonderful.

So here are more of his poems- read by some good folk of Glasgow, filmed by the Late Show. They made me cry good tears- so have a hanky to hand…