Please bear with me if the typsetting of the next few blogs seems a little weirder than normal. I’ve just had my new hard drive fitted on my computer and am now working on Windows 7 which is more sophisticated than Windows XP and has way too many gadgets to learn at once. Unfortunately my actual blog template page is coming up less sophisticated for some reason – I can’t enlarge the text or use coloured fonts, for instance. Yesterday I got into all sorts of trouble when the image consumed the text and amalgamated into one long column. Luckily my daughter was home and she responded faster than the 4th emergency service and did a neat cut and paste job for me. Tekki I am not! But I do want to keep blogging. Today’s blog: poetry.
I can’t remember where I read about the poetry anthology ‘Overheard on a Saltmarsh’ – poets’ favourite poems but I bought it and enjoyed it. The editor, current laureate Carol Ann Duffy, selected several contemporary poets, chose one of their poems for the collection and put the poet’s favourite poem next to it. Clever idea.
The anthology opens with a short poem by Sophie Hannah, who has now turned to crime and is doing very well from it too!
Here’s Sophie’s poem: ‘The World is a Box’
My heart is a box of affection.
My head is a box of ideas.
My room is a box of protection.
My past is a box full of years.
The future’s a box full of after.
An egg is a box full of yolk.
My life is a box full of laughter.
And the world is a box full of folk.
Sophie Hannah chose Whole Duty of Children as her favourite poem
A child should always say whats’ true
And speak when he is spoken to,
And behave mannerly at table:
At least when he is able.
by Robert Louis Stevenson
Overheard on a Saltmarsh ed by Carol Ann Duffy published by Picador £5.99.