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Last broadcast on Sat, 5 Nov 2011, 23:30 on BBC Radio 4 (see all broadcasts).
Synopsis
Ruth Padel presents a landmark series exploring the pleasures of writing and reading poems.
Poetry is everywhere, and all over the country workshops of aspiring poets meet to work together on their craft. The Edinburgh School of Poets is one such group, and Ruth joins them to work on three of their poems on the theme of 'Family Ties'. The text of all the poems featured will be available on the Radio 4 website a few days before the broadcast.
Ruth and the group listen to the poems and offer practical and inspirational pointers to each other. As they go behind the scenes of the poems, testing and pruning, exploring technical things like structure, rhyme and line endings, they reveal the imagination and the skill that makes poetry so rewarding for both writers and readers of poetry.
The poems from the group include about a tender one about the never ending anxieties of motherhood, which includes some interesting Scottish words like 'stravaiging'. There's also a funny piece about the pre-occupation with genealogy, and a moving poem about an attempt to piece together a picture of a lost family member from their remaining personal effects.
The group also share and appreciate a poem by the award winning poet Don Paterson, called The Thread.
Producers: Sarah Langan and Sara Davies.
It only changes, never stops by Dorothy Baird
The antennae that once woke me
to catch a hiccup
before it revved to screams
now scan the quality of night
to read who's out, who's in.
And 'out' means stravaiging in
pubs and clubs, daundering
on streets with chittery bumps
they don't feel, lurching for
taxis, friends' floors, the last bus,
while I'm the missions' sergeant
in my wakeful nightie,
alert for keys, creaking
stairs, the sloosh of taps,
counting them home.
Unnatural Selection by Jeff Kemp
I want a whore –
less for myself
than the children:
they can’t compete when
comparing antecedents
with their peers.
Even minor royals score less
than long dead scoundrels –
a burglar in the family tree
is handy on the bush telegraph
of internetted sites describing
who we think we are.
We like to be nice, mostly:
but ancestral vice adds zest.
Bonkers beats bankers,
tramps transported for a loaf
trump lounging landed gentry.
A courtesan is good; a whore, so much better.
The Poke by Anna Dickie
The postman brings his poke
of leavings to my door. I take
a dip and find:
one shot of a colonial wedding, creased,
three gap-toothed Kodak smiles,
some old carbons, official and varicosed
with age, oil company bumf from years
of fortnights on and fortnights off,
scraps of verse to distant women,
a few stiff letters from long dead pals,
and a brief note in a big hand’s tiny script
that says, “We Scots invented sin way before
TV or penicillin!”
No edges, no corners, just this bag of bits.
And if there was a picture on the lid
it went with him.
The Thread by Don Paterson
Unfortunately we are unable to publish the text of this poem.
It is taken from Don Paterson's collection, The Landing Light, published by faber and faber.
Poetry Workshop Edinburgh 1
Group photo
Poetry Workshop Edinburgh 2
(L-R) Karen Duncan, Jenny Mayor, Anne Connolly.
Poetry Workshop Edinburgh 3
(L-R) Jeff Kemp, Ruth Padel, Judith Stewart.
Poetry Workshop. Edinburgh 4
Jenny Mayor and Anne Connolly
Poetry Workshop. Edinburgh 5
Anna Dickie
Poetry Workshop. Edinburgh 6
Karen Duncan and Jenny Mayor
Broadcasts
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Sun 30 Oct 201116:30
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Sat 5 Nov 201123:30
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