Louise reads poems Louise Winters

I found Polcevera by Julian Bishop in the inaugural issue of The Alchemy Spoon, which is available in print and online. It may have been the alliteration in the first line that caught my attention: 'Your silent storm'. I love the subtly repeated sounds - "taking it's toll"; "beating against bared ribs". In two places the poem drops briefly into Italian as if to conceal where the blame lies?

Or perhaps because the full horror of those 43 lives lost by negligence leaves us searching for the right words and unable to find them in the usual, familiar places?

I'm thrilled and grateful to have Julian's permission to record and share his poem. Please do check his other work if you like it. Also please do have a look at The Alchemy Spoon - https://www.alchemyspoon.org/

Find the text of the poem here: https://en.calameo.com/read/0062403289f3fbdc57bbe?authid=BT5fITEXG0bZ&page=37

I found this poem by Sarah Alcaide-Escue in the second issue of Channel Magazine. I've been studying villanelle form - I enjoy the rhyme scheme.

This poem forces me to stop and slow down. In the second line I wrangle with the repeated 'r' sounds - growth, ringed, wrists - almost as if the w of with threatens to trip me up. I have to proceed carefully. There's a lot in each line in terms of sound and in meaning, it's definitely a poem to linger over. 

There's some lovely not quite rhymes in here too: wrists / resist; antilogy / apologies. You can find the text of the poem by buying a copy of Channel, issue 2 https://channelmag.org/

Pterodactyl is from John McCullough's latest collection, Reckless Paper Birds. I like the way the lines run on - I sometimes found it hard to pace myself so I had enough breath to finish the sentences, which forced me to think about the flow of the poem and how I wanted to honour it.
In stanza 4 I love the feeling of the different sounds in my mouth. I go from curiosity and absorption in the previous imagery to grounded by feeling the shapes of individual words   ... panic at the prospect ... expeditions ... sizzling ... irretrievably ... crater ... trip. At the end of the poem I am lost in the colours, vivid hues, vividly described and I tumble through the last line. 

I have a weakness for repeated words and alliteration and I find both in Song of the West Men by Simon Armitage. 

Armitage makes use of a repeating form "the far of the far ... the isles of the isles ... the rocks of the rocks" that provides a strong energy as I read and I feel almost like I'm flying with the words.  

When the pattern changes ('weave of the waves' or 'bones of his bones/were cooler than stone') other forms become apparent, sometimes alliteration, sometimes rhyme or part rhyme. The poem makes me wait a beat, and then lets me charge along with the words again.  

I enjoy the motion of these words as I unfold them.

I found Almost be Elizabeth Jennings today while flipping through a collection in need of solace. I can't tell you why, but the sound and feel of "it almost was not' comforting. There's something hypnotic in the flow of these words, and in the ways they appear later in the poem.

By John O'Donohue, Time to be Slow seems very apt after spending 3 weeks of the last 4 feeling unwell - taking time to be slow becomes very important when life gets tough. 

I enjoy how the poem's rhythm subtly shifts in the middle part of the poem. The start and end of the poem feel slower and has a slight lilt to it, which I think arises from the stressed & unstressed syllables forming groups of 3.

The middle part, the part about bitter weather, withstanding the storm and guarding your own "hesitant light" have more of a rhythm of plodding on. There's also very little punctuation in the 2nd verse, which pulls me on without pause, despite the first line's reminder to be slow. 

 As the poem comes back to the words "... of yourself" the lilt returns and, as reader, I breathe easier again.

Time to be Slow has featured as one of the Poems on the Underground, you can read it here:

https://poemsontheunderground.org/time-to-be-slow