poetic: 5 fabulous poems

Today for Friday's Fab five I'm sharing five poems I've come across. They are really fun/moving/good, depending, and are well worth checking out.

1. I'll kick off with Harry Baker, a British poet who has written the best poem in the world; well, he's won the world poetry slam anyway.

Here he is doing a TED talk entitled 'A love poem for lonely prime numbers.' That is not the only poem in the TED talk. Harry is light hearted and fun, and has a wonderful way with words.

2. Another TED talk poem now from Shane Koyczan. This one makes me cry. Shane is an amazing poet, and it's well worth checking out his other stuff too.

3. This poem from Josie Pizer about her experience of pain is beautifully personal.

4. I shared this poem the other day on my post about my favourite physical traits. This is a little blue, but it's also awesome. This is Heels by Imani Cezanne.

5. My last choice is from Liz Lochhead, the current Makar (National Poet of Scotland). This is My Rival's House. It's an intriguing poem loaded with hidden feeling. Liz Lochhead recently did a poetry workshop with my niece, who won a poetry competition (go you!), and said that a lot of people when reading poetry, feel the need to act it out, but you mustn't do that. You must let the voice carry the feeling, and the meaning of the poem.

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February update!

Hello! Please see above for a screenshot (not sure who the photo is by) from the lovely Fragmented Voices website which has my poem, Escaping Pheasants, as their featured poem today. This poem is inspired by the pheasants which are brought in to our local country house for people who are that way inclined to shoot. Sometimes I see them flapping down from the estate wall and on to the busy road, making a break for it toward the moors. Good luck pheasants. Escaping Pheasants also features in my book, Little Gods, published by the marvellous Roswell Publishing and available from booksellers and Amazon, or get in touch to get a signed copy from me. Other recent successes include two poems in Obsessed with Pipework #105, a Haiku in Coin Operated Press ' Haiku Zine, The Libraries came out in Culture Matters' Bread & Roses Anthology, and, as I mentioned last time, When you slow a bit you can see the way , another poem from Little Gods, came out in Butcher's Dog #19. I have ...

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