Wednesday 7 December 2016

Poetry Should Be For Everyone

My first book of poetry - A Poem for all Seasons takes a journey through the months of the year with poems about the weather, nature, the location where I live and memories and feelings of joy as well as loss.

My poetry, especially in this anthology, is what I would term as popular poetry it is not the abstract complexity of ideas and textures you get from much of the "literary" poetry that wins awards. This. I believe. is more for the ordinary people who like a rhyme or two, like something familiar they can understand and relate to, without having to think after reading it - what did it mean?

So much poetry I feel is to "clever" for its own good but of course, like art or theatre it is in the eye of the beholder. We all have different likes and dislikes and different ways of appreciating a walk along the river.

These poems, I hope, just create pictures and stories that are recognisable in an instance. As the reader scans the words they are there in the moment and it helps them make an emotional connection with the time and place.

Poetry is probably the most subjective of all the art forms and everyone can find something that appeals to their our sensibilities. Words take us to beautiful evocative places - they can make us feel every emotion under the sun.

The poems in this little book are just my ways of recording the world around me and I hope others will enjoy them for that.

I begin with a dedication to Holly - Holly Green was the young Wirral Poet Laureate in 2007-2008 and as a school-girl her grasp of language and imagery was more superior than many three times her age. I doubt I shall every be as good but her being part of my first community pageant All Along The River was a honour. Although I wrote most of the poetry, prose and music for this extravaganza for Liverpool's Capital of Culture, I could not have done it without the input of the other writers, poets and musicians who contributed to it and so it is in memory of that project my dedication is to her.

Some of the poems are just capturing the seasonal flavour as in "Winter Childhood" when an old man in a nursing home is looking at old black and white photos and remembering the fun of his childhood playing in the snow.  Other poems are more cynical like "Another New Year's Day"

There are poems about famous landscapes "Another Place" - the iron men standing in the Mersey sculptured by Antony Gormley - in this poem I imagine what the iron men may be thinking and how we define freedom.  "London Tripping" is a fast rhythmical poem about a trip to London and the train journey home to Liverpool. £" "River Sunday" paints a busy picture of all the sights one can see in just one morning along the River Mersey. Alternatively, "River Morning" shows a different side to the river through nature.

Liscard Cemetery has also been the source of much inspirations and "In loving Memory" is in this book but other poems and stories are also waiting to be published.  Vale Park , set on the promenade in New Brighton has also been a source as in the poem "Benches".

Poetry is all around us and in each one of us. so I hope if people consider buying this as a Christmas or birthday gift for someone they will appreciate the love I have for my surroundings.

The book is available from https://www.amazon.co.uk/Poem-All-Seasons-Collection-Poetry/dp/153996423X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1481107716&sr=1-1&keywords=bev+clark

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