On Day 636 of the daily poems our poet Jane Monach hears the gentle music of the Burbage Brook as it tumbles on its way to join the River Derwent. Burbage Brook I begin with gentle accentsminims and crotchetsspread silkcurls on slabopalescent slide shows a rush of sussurationswhipped to quaversto urgency over boulders nestled into… Continue reading

Orpheus knew, as does our poet Derek Adams, that the Place Denfert-Rochereau was traditionally called Place d’Enfer and that it houses an entrance to the Paris Catacombs … I’m sure you will have gleaned that from this clever poem, on Day 635 of the daily poems. Orpheus in Paris I busked the Metro to Denfert-Rochereau,the feet… Continue reading

On Day 634 of the daily poems our poet Fiona Clark pens her tribute to Paul McCartney and JS Bach, with a heartfelt cry for the assaulted and assailed. McCartney’s Blackbird Though darkness settles on the dense earth,lit by flares from Gaza,torn by children’s cries,a bright-edged moonsheds silver lightand wakens a blackbird,singing in the dead of… Continue reading

Day 633 of the daily poems. If you have ever been to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, you may have seen  in its collection the Messiah Stradivarius, a violin made by the Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari of Cremona in 1716.  It is the only Stradivarius in existence in as new state and, in the interests… Continue reading

Day 632 of the daily poems, and the music today is the music of the waltz.  But it’s a special waltz, and our poet Chrys Salt evokes the music of long-buried memories that come swirling to the surface in the one two three Alzheimer Waltz / waltz of forgetfulness / danced in a wilderness /… Continue reading