microscopic muses

  Support us The Guardian - Back to home The Guardian: news website of the year News Opinion Sport Culture Lifestyle Show caption Audiobook of the week The Drifted Stream audiobook review – Andrew Motion celebrates poetry’s rich oral tradition David Rintoul and Shaheen Khan are among the actors who read from Motion’s anthology of British and Irish poetry, spanning from the 14th century to the present day Fiona Sturges Fri 17 Feb 2023 07.00 EST Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share via Email In The Drifted Stream, the former poet laureate  Andrew Motion  draws together British and Irish poetry from the 14th century to the present day for a listening audience. In the foreword, Motion explains how the project harks back to a time when oral poetry was the prevailing form. “Poetry is as much a breath and sound art as it is an art that involves us on the page,” he says. Read by a cast of actors including Matt Addis, Shaheen Khan, David Rintoul, Gabby Wong, Abraham Popoola an...

  Pages and pages Of (unpublished) written words Attempting to breathe *on you *

  Abandoning Thoughts of  shopping duty Discards trolley 

  Naked arms outstretched  Imploring to be covered Cold desperation 

  Dent in the door   Temper’s manifestation Marked evidence 

A sudden warning Vital notification Imminent peril

Bare branches Exposition  Stripped bare

  Waiting for Spring to creep in Waiting for a change Waiting for time’s tide to turn * waiting for you to return *

  Support us The Guardian - Back to home The Guardian: news website of the year News Opinion Sport Culture Lifestyle Show caption Poetry roundup The best recent poetry – review roundup Content Warning: Everything by Akwaeke Emezi; The Hopeful Hat by Carole Satyamurti; Toys/Tricks/Traps by Christopher Reid; The Fourth Sister by Laura Scott Kit Fan Fri 3 Feb 2023 07.00 EST Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share via Email Content Warning: Everything by Akwaeke Emezi ( Bloomsbury, £1 2.99 ) It may seem a frightening idea that everything in one’s life requires a content warning, but fear isn’t the currency in Emezi’s mighty poetry debut. The book begins with What If My Mother Met Mary, a whimsical yet poignant conversation over a game of Scrabble. Emezi is an expert in transtemporal, transcultural exchanges. In What If Jesus Was My Big Brother, we are told “he turns / my water into Ribena”. Outrageously spiritual yet relentlessly self-exposed, the poems recycle biblical materials to a...