Poetry

OK, I admit for many poetry is "boring, unintelligible, nonsense"...yes, and you might be right! Partly this has been caused by us teachers with our mania for looking for the"MEANING" or worse still..."THE POET´S INTENTION"(intention that sometimes not even the poet knows!) We are such killjoys! Because that is what poetry is about...joy! The joy of reading something that we would have liked to say, the joy of discovering someone akin to us, or just the joy of the miracle of words, the same words that we use everyday can produce magic by a skilled/gifted/inspired pen. So how can we go about poetry? First, relax, read with your mind and all the senses open, forget about meanings, look for the"punch"...What is that? The assault to your mind and senses...the way a word or two keeps coming to your mind...the awareness that you would have wanted to say that...the recognition of words that make you happy, even if it`s for a moment or sympathy for a feeling you share. I invite you to listen to two poems by one of the most important and influential poets of the 20th century, the Irish William Butler Yeats, Nobel prize winner and recognised figure of the times...His poems are everlasting...


Two versions of "Second Coming" from Michael Robartes and the Dancer, 1920

And a modern one with exquisite music...



Or a surprising version of "Mother of God", from The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933)recited by Bono from Irish band U2: