Over the last month or so I've started
to dip my toes into poetry.
I’ve always been pretty afraid of
poetry – I won’t understand it. I’m not clever enough. I won’t feel anything. I avoided picking
university modules that were poetry heavy and I dreaded it when collections
popped up on my reading lists. And yet I love listening to poetry being read
aloud and I adore spoken word poetry.
After seeing Rupi Kaur’s Milk and Honey all over Twitter, Instagram
and Goodreads I decided to take the plunge with a birthday book token. I picked
it up the day it arrived and devoured it in one sitting. It was like a light
bulb turning on in my brain. These poems connected with me and I felt them as well as appreciating the
beauty of the writing and the lovely line illustrations.
Maybe I could read poetry after
all – it’s just a case of finding the right poets for me.
I was then offered a gorgeous new
edition of Shakespeare’s Sonnets and I
was thoroughly bamboozled one again. As expected. But undeterred, I picked up
Michel Faber’s Undying. This was a
tough, tough read. Michel Faber wrote this collection in response to the death
of his wife from cancer and it’s brutally honest and heart-wrenching. It was
another collection that opened my eyes to what modern poetry could be.
I don’t have any more poetry
collections on my TBR at the moment so I’d really love some recommendations,
particularly modern, female poets.
Sophie
I definitely believe that it's a case of finding the right poets and poems. When I love a poem, I'll read it over and over again like a favorite song, but when I don't, it won't resonate whatsoever.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read much by her yet but I plan on reading some of Warsan Shire's stuff at some point. She had some poetry featured in Beyonce's visual album Lemonade.
I've heard great things about milk and honey too. I've beeb trying to make it through the Shakespear sonnets as well :)
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