Hearing Pádraig Ó Tuama reciting lines of poetry by heart at the Poetry Retreat I recently attended made me want to go home and learn to speak in verse. I have a growing collection of books written by poets I have met at gigs and launches as well as ones that I have bought from a shop. Most of the time they sit on the coffee table at home for a while before I put them on a shelf to look pretty and gather dust.
Over the last few years I have been hearing lots of poetry at events and on podcasts. BBC's The Verb and Poetry Unbound being two current favourites. You can also check out my podcast, Pocketry Presents, for Australian flavoured poetry. I have also been attending loads of poetry workshops (a whopping sixty-two in the last & year's!) where I have been introduced to many new poets. But reading? Reading poetry? Not so much.
But that's all changing. Fired with enthusiasm after the first day of the workshop I went home and started searching through my shelves for The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion by Kei Miller. At the retreat, Pádraig read out Always Under Your Breath by Kei Miller and said he was one of his favourite poets. Apparently Pádraig owns all of his works.
I met Kei Miller a few years back when I was in Canberra visiting my folks and attended the Poetry on the Move festival. He was an incredible performer and I immediately bought his book. I flicked through it and read a couple of poems and then… you know what happened, right? The book went on a shelf to gather dust. Until now that is.
I'm about half way through at the moment and really enjoying the cartographer and rastaman's accounts of Babylon and surrounding lands. Miller has an ear for language and captures the two distinct voices well. If you want to hear Kei Miller read some of his poetry, check out Oracabessa.
When I was young(er) books were sacred objects to be handled with care. Don't crease the spine! Don't dog-ear the pages! Keep it looking like new. But then a few years back much to the horror of my eldest daughter, I started writing notes in the non fiction books I was reading. Highlighting phrases, writing notes in the margins. Commenting on passages. That sort of thing. After reading the introduction to Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World by Pádraig Ó Tuama, I decided to do the same with my poetry books. A nice way to remember my favourite lines and a record of my thoughts and feelings at a certain time.
My original plan was to read a book of poetry a week but then life got in the way. Now the aim is for one a month. Twelve books read doesn't sounds as impressive as fifty two but it's a whole lot better than none! I've been wanting to have something to do in an idle moment. A few years ago I used to take craft projects with me wherever I went and they would keep me amused while waiting. But in spite of making a wrist brace recently I'm still not making things with my hands. Now I won't be bored with this new bookish project – to read and read and read poetry!