Significant poems of this century?

Sometimes, when Mr. William is away at Kiltartan Cross on Literary Business with Mr. Heaney, Mr Durcan or W H Audenary, I sit down and write some poems of my own. Personally, I think they are every bit as good as Mr. William’s. And a darn sight better than that imbecile, Audenary’s twaddle! Here’s one I penned earlier. The Facile on my TV I will sit down and stay now, and stay and watch TV and a small pizza eat here which has been microwaved. Nine bean cans will I open to eat with chips for tea, I'll dine alone in the TV's gaze. And I shall bake my peas there in my cosy bungalow, drowsing from real ales in the morning to watch the cricket swings. At midday is my dinner, at noon the burgers glow. They're frying now on the cooker's rings. I will sit down and stay now for it's Home and Away. I hear their flip-flops flapping with low sounds by the shore. Where every girl's a Shiela who always says ‘G'day.’ I hear them in the TV's core.

does anyone actually read poetry here?

I do But I often get swamped by serious poetry discussions.....I have had it said that I don't appreciate poetry properly, because I haven't studied the so-called-masters. I'll go for anything at all by Edna St.Vincent Millay though, if I'm digging in the past. For me at least, she's the only poet from her era that wrote in an easily interpretable manner for todays world. Pablo Neruda does it for me too. Maya Angelou as well.

;o)

neruda .... mmmmmmm ..... tonight i write the saddest lines .....

Thats my fave Neruda Fishwife!!

gach...i have inadvertently created a neruda thread. damn these foolish plans...

SNOB!!! SNOB!!!

Stevie Smith for me! I have never been the same since I read this perfect short poem about holding a soft and crushable animal in your hand: "In his fur the animal rode, and in his fur he strove, And oh it filled my heart my heart, it filled my heart with love."

has to be..... Louis MacNeice.... 'Snow' 'Trains in the Distance' and 'Western Landscape' being my very favourites. Sylvia Plath.....'Morning Song' 'Tulips' 'Parliment hill Fields' 'Zoo keepers wife'...and all the rest too many to list. Frances Horovitz....'Rain-Birdoswald' for it's beautiful simplicity. Selima Hill.... 'Don't let's talk about being in love.' she captures the cynical pain of love. Peter Reading.... 'Untitled' for the way in which he skillfully depicts contemporary issues in unique metrical patterns.

max!! ... what about selima hill's "what do i really believe"???? FANTASTIC

take it your a devotee too Ivry...Hi comrade What about....'Not All the Women of England' !! and......'Monkeys' Selima H has genuinely and most certainly........seen it - worn it - heard it...and FELT it. She touches my soul.

.....ooooh max .... in fact i went into the murky harbour bookshop only the other day in search of selima hill but found none and was forced to flee by the sheer weight of poetry on the shelf ...

now i am reminded of e e cummings i must refer to the poem which starts now i love you and you love me (and books are shuter than books can be)

Could I mention a poem from someone who never lived long enough to develop into what might have been an awesome talent? I recall a newspaper letter, around two years ago, stating that this poem was sketched out on the inside of a cigarette packet and passed across the mess table for comment. Thank goodness it survived, because its author was killed a few months later. I refer to "High Flight" by J G MacGee, an American serving in the wartime RAF. I used to think that this was an obscure work, until it was used as an unbearably moving tribute after the "Challenger" disaster: "Put out my hand, and touched the face of God." I noticed recently that this reached the mid-thirties in the "Bookworm" survey of favourite poems, so I'm not the only bloke who's reached for a tissue after reading this and pleaded "something in my eye." In the same vein, could I mention "For Johnny" by John Pudsey, quoted memorably in the film "The Way to the Stars." Yeah, I'm just an old softie.

prufrock ... for me

Stephen Romer for me

could you explain who these people are and why they are significant? by prufrock do you mean eliot's love song of alfred j prufrock?

probably the second coming (1921) by yeats, because of the sheer resonance the poem has even now, foreshadowing the events of the next 25 years. also, the Farewell chorus (1940) by david gascoyne. very emotional and shoulders above Auden of the period, which many people don't realise.

Anything by Kilroy!