Sunday, May 03, 2009

 

Carol Ann Duffy

I must quickly note how delighted I am that Carol Ann Duffy has been appointed Britain's first ever female Poet Laureate. My sister sent me a care package several years ago with Duffy's collection 'The World's Wife' included, and I've been a devotee ever since. This from 'Valentine', which is included in her 2005 collection 'Rapture':

I give you an onion.
Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips,
possessive and faithful
as we are,
for as long as we are.

I'd been thinking of Duffy just the other day in the context of a quote from Joni Mitchell. She mentioned why she'd written the song 'Amelia' for the late aviator, Amelia Earhart:

"I wanted to send regards from one solo pilot to another".

I found that very beautiful, as I do the tender yet courageous work of Carol Ann Duffy.

Comments:
I'll have to check her out. Love the idea of a faithful onion kiss.
 
Never would I have thought an onion could be used so lovely!
 
There's a reason that's practically the only poem I can still recite from GCSE English lit days.
 
I found Duffy and Mitchell around the same time, 15. I am 22 now, and I dont think a week passes without me listening to a Joni Mitchell song. A case of You, All I want, those two songs in particular, have massively affected me. Each time I hear them, the lyrics cut through me: 'Do you see - do you see - do you see how you hurt me baby
So I hurt you too
Then we both get so blue'
 
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