Comments on: How Do You Carry Yours?

By: Lauren Lochrie

Lauren Lochrie — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 22:39:25 +0000

One night I couldn’t sleep, heres what I wrote…

Normality – everyday pollution – polluting everyday normally…
Convenient ignorance.
Considerably concerning, considering the concerned,
Overwhelmed by normality,
Is not always that.

Lauren Lochrie.

By: John Mallaghan

John Mallaghan — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:18:39 +0000

I keep many of my father’s poems on my MP3 player – originally recorded by him on an old cassette player before he died. You can read them all and listen to some on the web site I launched to mark the publication of my first book, inspired by and named after one of the poems – “The Knitter” – http://www.theknitterbook.com

The Knitter

Three nights it came in sleep, that vision clear
Three nights!, each ticking second seemed a year.
Three nights as she with silent needles plied
And wove a shapeless garment, rainbow pied.
“What knittest thou?”, but she, unheeding, heard
Nor lifted eye intent on ghostly cord.
Again, “What knittest?” as the words arose
On ashen lips, in fear the question froze.

Mine eyes beheld – or was it Devil’s ploy
With sleeping brain his unresisting toy.
Mine eyes beheld in stark sun-piercing light
The rubrics of Eternal’s timeless rite.
That forming robe was form’d not with fleece
Shorn from the lamb, symbolical to peace.
Lo! she, with some infernal magic rife,
Entwined her needles with my passing life.

John Mallaghan

By: Poetry in motion « The Lost Book

Poetry in motion « The Lost Book — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:24:45 +0000

[...] (it’ll be available until the end of February) or take part by answering the question “how do you carry yours?“. Or, for BookCrossers, there’s a Carry a Poem bookring – sign up [...]

By: Malcolm Denovan

Malcolm Denovan — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:56:47 +0000

Poetry is something worth remembering. A good poem should be memorized and carried mentally, instantly available for recital. A poem the reader engages with requires little effort to memorize. x

By: Anne Hunter

Anne Hunter — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 21:42:36 +0000

I carry Brian Patten’s poem in my memory. It has always seemed like an eloquent description of how we toddle on.

One another’s light

It’s hard to guess what brought me here,
Away from where I’ve hardly ever been and now
Am never likely to go again.

Faces are lost, and places passed
At which I could have stopped
And stopping, been glad enough.

Some faces left a mark;
And I on them might have wrought
Some kind of charm or spell
To make their futures work,

But it’s hard to guess
How one thing on another
Works an influence.
We pass -
And lit briefly by one another’s light
Think the way we go is right.

Brian Patten

By: Tony

Tony — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:01:22 +0000

Self promotion, but might be of interest to poem-of-the-day types. I carry my poems in my pocket on my iPod, with the Poem Flow iphone app (http://poemflow.com/iPhoneApp). A new poem every day, shared simultaneously worldwide, and presented as a flowing animation.

Cheers,

By: Miss Edinburgh

Miss Edinburgh — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 21:44:08 +0000

I carry mine on the cards from the library, but I carry them all around Scotland!

See where my cards have been this weekend

http://www.edinburghspotlight.com/2010/02/photo-carry-a-poem-around-scotland/

Alison

By: Robbie Handy

Robbie Handy — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 21:17:22 +0000

There’s some lovely poems an stories here. Ah carry ma poem in ma wallet. Ah first found it in the lyrics tae a great song called ‘Book Of Rules’ on the album ‘Cool Rasta’ by the Heptones. When Ah hear the song, an read the poem it’s taken fae, it minds me tae forget aboot temporary struggles in life: Ah feel part o a bigger story than ma ain an Ah mind what Ah’m fightin for . It allows me tae feel a wee bit o transcendence : it’s ma wee Mount Zion moment .

‘A Bag Of Tools’ by RL Sharpe

‘Isn’t it strange
that princes and kings,
and clowns that caper
in sawdust rings,
and common people
like you and me
are builders for eternity?

Each is given a bag of tools,
a shapeless mass,
a book of rules:
and each must make-
ere life is flown-
a stumbling block
or a steppingstone.’

By: I carry poems « Honest Speaks

I carry poems « Honest Speaks — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 18:43:37 +0000

[...] carry poems I have been over at Carry a Poem , reading about how people carry poems with them. I especially like Katie’s post (from 5th February), the line: ‘And I am [...]

By: honestspeaks

honestspeaks — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 18:42:59 +0000

I’ve enjoyed reading all these poems for a little while now, and thought it was about time I posted something myself…

I carry so many poems that I am having a ‘carry a poem’ week over on twitter (@honestlyspeakin)! But first, here’s the poem I’ve carried so long I feel like I’ve always known it (from William Blake’s ‘Augeries of Innocence):

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.

…and here’s how I carry the poems I write:

I carry poems

I carry poems with me
Many different ones each day
I keep them in my head and heart
And collect more along my way

My heart is always full to bursting
But there’ll always be more space
For the poetry I see daily
In all kinds of places and on so many faces

I add more poems as I see them
And I see them all the time
I take mental snapshots of moments
Wrap them in words to make them mine

I carry the man outside the supermarket with a sleeping bag over his head
I carry the words I’ve still to let go of, those that made me see red
I carry his frown lines
I carry her smile
I carry his laughter
I carry your sense of style

I carry the words that lie beneath those that you use
I carry your pain
I carry my muse

I carry all this and more
All of the time
Then give birth to new poems
And hope you might carry mine.