Tag Archives: American poets

A poem to read in the bath… ‘Poor Girl’ by Maya Angelou #poetry #women

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I can hear the sorrow in every word of this woman who feels cheated, cynical in her understanding that she loved a wrong ‘un. This is ‘Poor Girl’ by Maya Angelou. She is angry, talking directly to a former lover who has betrayed her.

Maya Angelou

[photo: Wikipedia]

It has a simple structure, a repetition that reflects the sense of inevitability as he finds a new love; and the inevitability that this new love will soon turn into another old love, another poor girl, as yet again he uses then moves on. In her poetry Angelou loves men, but she also trashes badly behaved disrespectful unloving men.

This poem is subject to copyright restrictions. Please search for the full poem in an anthology or at your local library.

‘Poor Girl’
You’ve got another love
            and I know it
Someone who adores you
            just like me
Hanging on your words
            like they were gold
Thinking she understands
            your soul
Poor Girl
            Just like me

Maya Angelou BUY THE BOOK

Read these other excerpts and find a new poet to love:-
‘My Father’ by Yehuda Amichai 
‘Sometimes and After’ by Hilda Doolittle
‘I Loved Her Like the Leaves’ by Kakinonoto Hitomaro

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
A #poem to read in the bath: Poor Girl’ by Maya Angelou https://wp.me/p5gEM4-4kX via @SandraDanby

A poem to read in the bath… ‘What I Learned From My Mother’ by Julia Kasdorf #poetry

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Written in 1992 by American poet Julia Kasdorf, What I Learned From My Mother is a poem that crosses time, languages, cultures and continents. Its message is familiar to all women. The rituals of death and grieving, of condolence, of a kind word, flowers and chocolate cake and the blessing of your presence. Julia Kasdorf

This poem is subject to copyright restrictions. Please search for the full poem in an anthology or at your local library.

‘What I Learned From My Mother’

I learned from my mother how to love
the living, to have plenty of vases on hand
in case you have to rush to the hospital
with peonies cut from the lawn, black ants
still stuck to the buds. I learned to save jars
large enough to hold fruit salad for a whole
grieving household, to cube home-canned pears
and peaches, to slice through maroon grape skins
and click out the sexual seeds with a knife point.

Julia KasdorfBUY THE BOOK

Read these other excerpts and find a new poet to love:-
‘Invictus’ by WE Henley 
‘Runaways’ by Daniela Nunnari
‘Valediction’ by Seamus Heaney 

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
A #poem to read in the bath: ‘What I Learned From My Mother’ by Julia Kasdorf  https://wp.me/p5gEM4-4ch via @SandraDanby

A poem to read in the bath… ‘The Dead’ by Billy Collins #poetry

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A popular American poet, Billy Collins [below] was praised by John Updike for writing “lovely poems…Limpid, gently and consistently startling, more serious than they seem, they describe all the worlds that are and were and some others besides.” He has been Poet Laureate twice: the US Poet Laureate from 2001-2003, and New York State Poet Laureate from 2004-2006. I like his idea here of the dead looking down on those they’ve left behind, keeping an eye on us.

Billy Collins

[photo: poetryfoundation.org]

Because of copyright restrictions I am unable to reproduce the poem in full, but please search it out in an anthology or at your local library.

‘The Dead’
The dead are always looking down on us, they say,
While we are putting on our shoes or making a sandwich,
They are looking down through the glass-bottom boats of heaven
As they row themselves slowly through eternity.

I am new to Billy Collins, and found this poem in a Bloodaxe anthology. I ordered his first collection, Taking Off Emily Dickinson’s Clothes and was immediately won over by the endorsement by Carol Ann Duffy on the cover: “Billy Collins is one of my favourite poets in the world”. That’ll do for me then.
Here’s a Ted video of Billy Collins talking about what dogs think, probably. The second poem is hilarious.
Why have I not discovered him sooner?
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Read these other excerpts and find a new poet to love:-
‘Japanese Maple’ by Clive James
‘Digging’ by Seamus Heaney
‘Not Waving but Drowning’ by Stevie Smith

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
A #poem to read in the bath: ‘The Dead’ by Billy Collins http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1Mk  via @SandraDanby

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