I don't think that you can listen to Dylan Thomas reading Poem in October, Seamus Healey reading Blackberry Picking or Alice Oswald reading A Short Story of Falling without knowing these poem differently. Of course, few of us are Thomases, Healeys or Oswalds. Many very accomplished poets are not especially good at reading their work: Louise Glück’s reading of Crossroads , for example, seems to me pretty wooden (at least until the very end of the poem).
But even so there is something very special about hearing fine poets give voice to their own work. They have almost always spent a lot more time with their poems than any reader is likely to, and it almost always shows. There may be just an unexpected stress here or a pause there; a slight speeding up or slowing down; but there is almost always something added--something that would elude you otherwise--when the person who made the poem offers it to you. And, of course, we were singing and reciting poems long before we started writing them down.
Which is why I am thrilled by what the people running the Blake Prize have done. They have recorded the authors of each of the shortlisted poems presenting their poems; and they have provided the text of each so you can read along if you wish. All free, and all in one place. Well done, if you are one of the crew at Westwords that put this together. As for the rest of you, click on the button below and drink your fill.
Comments