If you'd like to suggest a particular poem for possible inclusion in the programme, contact us - don't forget to tell us why you'd like to hear your choice...
This week
Sunday 17 December 2006
Roger McGough opens a new series with gifts a-plenty, including treats from U.A Fanthorpe, Laurie Lee and Elizabeth Jennings, in this seasonal edition of Poetry Please. There is a tale of thespian misbehaviour during the school nativity and a salute to some of the less glamorous aspects of the season, like sorting out the Christmas tree lights. Robert Louis Stevenson tells us of windswept nostalgic thoughts of times long gone, and other offerings include gems from Carol Ann Duffy and Benjamin Zephaniah. The readers are Tom Lawrence, Kate Littlewood and Patrick Romer.
Featured poems
December by Carol Ann Duffy
From: Rapture
Publ: Picador
'The Shepherd' and 'Last Fruits' both by Edward Kaulfuss
Poems sent in by listener. Originally published in The New Beacon Magazine, a journal of The Royal National Institute for the Blind
The Tree by U.A. Fanthorpe
From: Christmas Poems
Publ: Peterloo Poets
The Circuit by John Mole
From: Selected Poems
Publ: Sinclair-Stevenson
The Singers by John Mole
From: Selected Poems
Publ: Sinclair-Stevenson
School Nativity by Rosamund Browne Rosamund Browne's webpage is at www.timeforrhyme.co.uk
Christmas Landscape by Laurie Lee
From: Selected Poems
Publ: Andrew Deutsch
The Right Givers by Elizabeth Jennings
From: In the Meantime
Publ: Carcanet
Six Things for Christmas by John May
From: Messages - A Book of Poems
Publ: faber and faber
A Good Idea for Wintry Weather by Libby Houston
From: All Change
Publ: Oxford University Press
Talking Turkeys by Benjamin Zephaniah
From: Talking Turkeys
Publ: Penguin
Christmas by Leonard Clarke
From: The Voice of Poetry
Publ: Heinemann
In Ceylon by Richard Powers
Poem sent in by listener. Originally published in Forces newspaper SEAC
The Snowman by Yvonne Davies
Unpublished
The Trouble with Snowmen by Roger McGough
From: Collected Poems
Publ: Viking
Christmas at Sea by Robert Louis Stevenson
From: The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse
Publ: Oxford University Press
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