Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Tuesday Poem - 'Without You' by Adrian Henri

At some stage the Poetry Circle was discussing - more or less in passing - the work of poets like Roger McGough and Adrian Henri. I can remember where I was sitting in Ipswich Girl's Grammar School library when I first discovered Henri's poem, 'Without You'. What did I love about it? It was both real and surreal.  The language and imagery changed from jokey 'Without you there'd be no colour in Magic colouring books' to melodramatic, 'Without you Mahler's 8th would only be performed by street musicians in derelict houses' to poignant, 'Without you blind men would sell unlucky heather'. I was twelve and had a crush on boy, a young man, really, well out of my reach. I had only been kissed inexpertly, but the fear and yearning behind the wit, and something else, too - a vitality - in the lines sang out to me.

I don't want to break copyright but click here to hear Adrian Henri's 'Without You' read by James Haddow. You have to scroll down a little and be patient.

In other poetic news? The Poetry Circle explored a number of poems at our last, sadly triangular, meeting. With only three of us present we zoomed through the following:

'Earth Hour' by David Malouf
'Aquarius' by David Malouf

'The Ikons' by J K Baxter
'Olduvai Gorge Thorn Tree' by Sarah Lindsay
'Evaluation of an Unwritten Poem' Wislawa Szymborska
'No Title Required' by Wislawa Szymborska
'Taliesin and the Spring of Vision' by Vernon Watkins
'Music of Colours: White Blossom' by Vernon Watkins
'Solomon Grundy' by Alice Oswald
'Dart' by Alice Oswald

I loved the Alice Oswald poems - and I hadn't struck her work before. They had a lovely energy and unexpected twists and turns of imagery. 

More poetry on the Tuesday Poem page and from there you are only a click away from many other poems brought to you each Tuesday.

3 comments:

Michelle Elvy said...

I like this reminiscence and the other poems you mention from your poetry circle. Thanks for sharing! I have just clicked on the link to hear the poem!

Michelle Elvy said...

"Without you plastic flowers in shop windows would just be plastic flowers in shop windows..."

Nice! And such a good reading. It has great momentum and feeling. A sadness, and a hope.

Helen McKinlay said...

Loved this one Catty...a real burst of fresh air and a wonderful love poem?... certainly a poem of love for someone. I like the without you Clark Kent owuld forget hw to become superman. Thanks for the link.:-)