I have only recently discovered Anne Stevensons poetry,its good.

Making Poetry

‘You have to inhabit poetry
if you want to make it.’


‘And what’s to inhabit’ ?

To be in the habit of, to wear
words, sitting in the plainest light,
in the silk of the morning, in the shoe of the night;
a feeling bare and frondish in surprising air;
familiar …rare.

And what’s ‘to make’ ?

To be and to become words` passing
weather; to serve a girl terrible
terms, embark on voyages over voices,
evade the ego-hill, the misery-well
the siren hiss of publish, success, publish,
success, success, success.

And why inhabit,make, inherit poetry ?

Oh! it’s the shared comedy of the worst
blessed, the sound leading the hand;
a wordlife running from mind to mind
through the washed rooms of the simple senses;
one of those haunted, undependable, unpoetic
crosses we have to find.

Anne Stevenson

So good to hear from you again! happy noo yur!

You've found a real gem there.
Was it she who did the When I am old I Shall Wear Purple? Couldn't get on with that, but this oi loike too.

Hi Ricardo
Happy New Year to you both too.
No, that was Jenny Joseph and thethe poem is called

Warning

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn`t go,and doesn`t suit me,
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandles,and say we`ve no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other people`s gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practise a little now?
So people who know me are not shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old and start to wear purple.

I can see Jenny`s message, but when does one actually accept being old. The body maybe, but not the mind !