Wednesday 22 April 2009

Take Me With You by Polly Clark

I've just finished reading Take Me With You, Polly Clark's second poetry collection, which I bought at a reading I attended earlier this year. She is one of my favourite living poets and I really enjoyed this book. She writes a lot (though by no means exclusively) about nature and the relationships between humans and the natural world, from observations of nature to thoughts on recycling. This is an excerpt from Fairytale:

A kingfisher sparks
and flickers ahead of me
and of course, I follow it

though it leads me only
to where the ducks in formation
know the secret of what comes next.

There is always genuine insight in Polly Clark's poetry and she uses language beautifully. I'll leave you (specially all the bunny bloggers out there!) with an excerpt from Nibbling:

...............................................She's

a crazed dictator, disappearing
whole families of scorching pinks.

The pin faces of forget me nots
giggle as she opens wide.

9 comments:

Ana said...

i love the "p" 's and "pin" 's...'cause the effect. That is mastery of language...

lunarossa said...

I agree, beautifully used language. I will get the book as wekk. Thanks for letting us know. Ciao. A.

The Weaver of Grass said...

Lovely stuff from somebody who really loves and understands nature Juliet.

Susan Tuttle said...

Thank you so much for sharing Polly's poetry -- I had not heard of her until now.

:)

xo

Janice Thomson said...

What wonderful poems - I too never heard of her but will be looking for that book.

Paul said...

Blood Axe Books continues to do a fabulous job, bringing wonderful poets like Polly Clark to a wide audience. They are possibly the most successful publishers of poetry in the world at the moment and this book is a fabulous example of why.

RG said...

Forget-me-nots ... I planted one once! Now I pull them like weeds every spring! And certainly remember the one I planted it for!

Crafty Green Poet said...

Thanks everyone.

Paul - yes you are so right, Bloodaxe do a great job

Rabbits Guy - yes they do spread don't they!

Jeeves said...

Thanks for sharing this