As Yet Untitled

Apply for the OUPS Committee!

2010-05-20T22:08:00.001+01:00

OUPS Committee

It's that time of year again when we must lamentably pass on the poetry baton. If you think you've got what it takes to be on the OUPS committee and carry on spreading the poetry love throughout Oxford next year, then apply!

Below is an approximate outline of the positions we'll be looking to appoint, although depending on the individuals who apply we may or may not shuffle around some of the duties, merge positions together, appoint more than one person to a position, etc. But for now, this is what next year's committee will roughly look like:

PRESIDENT

The big job. It's the president's responsibility to organise the termcards (so awareness of the current poetry scene is a must, and if you've got connections, even better), host events, liaise with guest speakers and generally run the ship. The president really needs to be sociable, happy with public speaking and very, very committed.

VICE-PRESIDENT

Because the role of President can be so time-consuming, we may or may not appoint a vice-president to be on call to assist in liaising with guest speakers, taking care of them and so on, and generally filling in for the President when necessary.

SECRETARY

If you want to get involved and play a vital part in running the society, but don't necessarily want to get on stage, this is the job for you. The secretary is in charge of the admin: sending the weekly emails, updating the mailing list, archiving lists of members and taking the minutes at meetings. It's a big job and the secretary needs to be committed but above all, super-organised.

TREASURER

OUPS is a fairly low-budget society so every penny counts. It's the treasurer's job to keep accounts, look after the bank account and pay poets, but also to come up with ideas for money-saving/money-making. If you're that rare combination of poetry-loving and number-crunching, OUPS will be ever-grateful for your help.

ASH EDITOR

This is the most autonomous of the OUPS positions; the ASH editor is mostly left to their own devices to take submissions and produce our termly magazine, and also is mainly responsible for the selling of it. Good poetic taste is a must. If you have any questions email the current editor, Sophie, at sophie.yeo@ccc.ox.ac.uk.

PUBLICITY MANAGER

We may or may not split this position into two: print publicity manager and online publicity manager. Either way the posters must get made and the society's web presence must be felt. If you think you could design beautiful posters/flyers, and/or make our web site (www.oxfordpoetry.blogspot.com) spectacular, and even have other ideas for how to generate publicity, then apply.

WORKSHOP DIRECTOR

The weekly poetry workshops are a long-standing and much-loved part of the OUPS package. We need someone who is able to commit to an evening a week and is capable of running a workshop, directing discussion, giving constructive criticism etc. This may or may not be combined with any of the other positions.

LIVE EVENTS MANAGER

/Creative Directer. The Live Events Manager is responsible for coming up with and organising 'special' events, i.e. other than the weekly readings, but will still have to work in close contact with the President. The main one-off event is Poetry Out Loud, our annual recitation competiton, but also writing competitions, joint events with other societies, socials and so on all need to get organised.

If these all sound a bit scary, never fear: this year's committee will still be around next year to show the new committee the ropes. It is a lot of work, but it's great fun as well and, let's face it, looks pretty good on the old CV.

So if you think you have what it takes, here's what happens now:

- Send an email to tess.somervell at chch.ox.ac.uk, listing which position/s you're interested in applying for, numbering them according to preference if you wish. Applying for more than one position will not jeopardise your chances at getting your first choice of position. Give a paragraph or so for each position describing why you'd be perfect for that role, and any ideas you have for what you'd do in that position next year.

- Do this by noon on Friday 28th May, that's Friday of 5th week.

- We'll then organise short interviews, probably to held on the Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday of 6th week.

- Taking into account the interviews and application emails, we'll appoint the new committee! And let everyone know early in 7th week.

Good luck!

Wednesday Workshop Poetry 2

2010-05-20T22:05:00.001+01:00

another attempt

purgatory flames marshmallows – tulip seeds pressed ornaments – panting clouds ruptured – and the sliced tunnel: trustless standing view of look its nose abiding a spinning top. golden lyre rightful possession of violet-haired muses deep-sounding thunderer of brandished spears your last hopping there see in exhaustion the hare a spinning top flaming. round they dance pink sugar roast brown spitting this is important spitting ornaments. sliced then distributed everyone gets a share refreshed a chewing gum! up up now if you run I can still catch the bus they see me pressing closer; as you turn the spit watering lemon cake irony.

royal jelly.

6.5.10

Samuel Meister, Univ College

Wednesday Workshop Poetry

2010-05-20T22:04:00.001+01:00

The Wednesday Workshop is dedicated to helping poets hone their craft. We find ways to improve drafts of poems, and become better writers together. The group feedback workshop style encourages not just discussion, but revision, and we’ve included some ‘before’ and ‘after’ drafts of some of our talented poets who attend the workshop. Sign up to the OUPS Facebook group to receive updates and come out and see for yourself!

These two are both by Arabella Currie, second year Classicist at Balliol.

BEFORE draft

Boa Sr has died

When the wave came down upon them
Boa Sr climbed. The elders told us the earth
would part. Don’t run away or move.
From her tree she could see it all.
Underneath, dogs and children
and stoves and walls and bicycles
flowed slowly past. Her roots dug deep.
Afterwards, she climbed down
and stood on the damp sand.
She looked at branchless trees and a still sea.
She didn’t say anything.

The dry syllables of the language
which in six years would die with her death
lay on her tongue.
She bit her lip and pushed the words
against the inside of her teeth.

AFTER workshop-draft

Boa Sr

In memory of a survivor of the Tsunami and the last speaker of Bo

When the wave came down upon them
Boa Sr climbed.
The elders told her the earth
would part. Don't move or run away.
The wave broke with a heavy sound.
From her tree she looked
as dogs and children
and stoves and walls and bicycles
flowed slowly past. Her roots clung.

Afterwards, she climbed down
and sat on the damp sand,
arms folded around her knees.
She saw branchless trees and a still sea.
She didn't say a thing.

Six years later, the dry syllables
of her language would die with her death.
Now they lay on her tongue.
She bit her lip and pushed the words
against the inside of her teeth.

BEFORE

The White Ship

This is the rock that sunk the White Ship.
No rock ever sunk such a ship, before or after,
and no ship ever brought so much misery to England.
So many men, sea beaten.
Stretched on the shore like thirsty seal pups,
salt deep in them. Only one left breathing.
A butcher from Rouen. Saved by his warm ramskins
and by the fishermen who saw him twitching,
and saw pale sheep start grazing on his wishbone.

AFTER

Barfleur

This is the rock that sunk the White Ship.
No ship ever brought such misery to England
and no rock ever sunk such a ship,
before or after.

All those men, sea-beaten,
stretched on the shore
like seal pups, salt deep in them.

Only one left breathing. A butcher from Rouen,
saved by the fishermen who saw him twitching -
saw pale sheep begin to graze on his wishbone.

Events this term - Hilary '10

2010-01-27T11:45:00.001Z

Thursday 28th January: Luke Kennard

Thursday 11th February: Laura Dockrill

Thursday 18th February: John Hegley

Thursday 25th February: Lavinia Greenwood

Thursday 4th March: John Agard

Wednesday 10th March: Workshop with Patrick McGuinness

Thursday 11th March: Patrick McGuinness and Tom Chivers

Readings at the Albion Beatnik Bookshop in Jericho. See you there!

launch party now = Simon Armitage

2009-11-02T16:43:00.002Z

OK, so, the launch party for tomorrow night has been cancelled. It was a short-lived but glorious dream.

Only now it just got a heck of a lot more glorious because the launch party is now officially merged with the Simon Armitage reading on Thursday, that's THURSDAY 5th NOVEMBER! Come and spend a warm, cosy bonfire night at the Jericho Tavern, from 8pm, enjoying music from Borderville and some incredible poetry from the one and only Simon Armitage. *cough*£5-on-the-door*cough*

Watch out for the event coming to a facebook page near you xxxxxxxxxxx

LAUNCH PARTY!

2009-10-31T11:49:00.003Z

First of all, thanks to everyone who came to hear Luke Wright's incredible performance poetry on Thursday, it was a great evening!

But sadly time moves on and we must look to new and stranger things, such as...

THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY POETRY SOCIETY LAUNCH PARTY

To celebrate the kicking off of the term with Luke Wright and the amazing poets still to come (note: Simon Armitage on Thursday 5th November, put it in your diaries now...), join the committee and lots of other poetry-minded souls at The Wheatsheaf (129 High St), from 8pm on TUESDAY 3rd NOVEMBER.

There will be *live poetry and music* but also just a chance to mingle, drink, hook up, discuss the respective merits of Motion and Duffy, whatever floats your poetry boat.

See you there! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Events Updated!

2009-10-25T23:11:00.002Z

Here are the updated events and NEW VENUES for our Michaelmas readings, plus a LAUNCH PARTY!

Thursday 29th October - 3rd Week
Luke Wright (plus guests), upstairs at the Big Bang Restaurant in Jericho. 8pm.
Map: http://www.thebigbangrestaurants.co.uk/contactus.htm

Tuesday 3rd November - 4th Week
Oxford University Poetry Society Launch Party, plus poetry and music. At 'The Wheatsheaf' pub. 8pm.
Map: click here

Thursday 5th November - 4th Week
Simon Armitage (plus live band) upstairs at the Jericho Tavern. 8pm.
Map: click here

Thursday 12th November - 5th Week
Lemn Sissay (plus guests) downstairs at the Big Bang Restaurant in Jericho. 8pm.
Map: http://www.thebigbangrestaurants.co.uk/contactus.htm

Thursday 19th November - 6th Week
Glyn Maxwell (plus singer-songwriter). Venue TBC

Thursday 24th November - 7th Week
Roger Mcgough (plus guests) downstairs at the Big Bang Restaurant in Jericho. 8pm.
Map: http://www.thebigbangrestaurants.co.uk/contactus.htm

see. you. soon!

x

1st Wednesday Workshop of Term!

2009-10-17T16:15:00.002+01:00

This from our Live Events officer, Nanette:
---
Budding/Aspiring/Tentative Poets come one and all to the first OUPS Wednesday workshop of the term. If you like to write, but you need some motivation, this is a great way to get the juices flowing.

Optional Prompt: Write a poem using an object for inspiration. Help us see
this object in a new or unusual way.
(stolen from: http://blog.32poems.com/701/oh-no-i-have-no-time-to-write)

Meet: at Turl Street Tavern, Turl Street, every Wednesday night at 7.30

Bring: Your articulate badass self. Open mind. A few copies of the poem you are working on, including the prompt if you like.

We'll grab a drink and peer-review your work for style, content, form, whatever you would like help with.

Hope to see some of you there.
Nanette
--

Go forth and create!

London Poetry Systems comes to Oxford

2009-10-13T12:55:00.002+01:00

OUPS joins up with the London Poetry Systems for their Oxford promotion event; come see our own Oxford talent, incl. President Caroline Bird!

Michaelmas 09 Readings

2009-10-10T20:59:00.003+01:00

What we have got lined up for you this term:

FABER NEW POETS TOUR
Wed 14th Oct - 1st Week
Old Dining Hall, Teddy Hall, 8pm
---

LUKE WRIGHT
Thu 29th Oct - 2nd Week

SIMON ARMITAGE
Thu 5th Nov - 4th Week

LEMN SESSAY
Thu 12th Nov - 5th Week

GLYN MAXWELL
Thu 19th Nov - 6th Week

ROGER MCGOUGH
Thu 26th Nov - 7th Week

Venue TBC - doors will open at 8pm, readings start at 8.30pm and last about an hour.

We'll also have supporting music acts for some of these - more news on this soon!

Join our Facebook group to get news and handy event invites direct to your profile!

New Term, New Year, New Committee!

2009-09-29T14:11:00.000+01:00

Welcome to a new academic year at Oxford with OUPS!

We'll have poetry recitals, visiting poets, workshops galore - keep visiting the website for updates, syndicate our newsfeed on RSS, or get your dose of OUPS the old-fashioned way via our maillist.

For now, here's the list of our new band of crusading committee-members, ready to bring a rhyme to your life:

President MT09-HT10 - Caroline Bird (caroline.bird at stcatz.ox.ac.uk)
Presidential Secretary - Tess Somervell (President TT10)
(tess.somervell at chch.ox.ac.uk)
Secretary - Sophie Salamon (sophie.salamon at lincoln.ox.ac.uk)
Ash Editor - Sophie Yeo (sophie.yeo at ccc.ox.ac.uk)
Publicity (Web) - Yuan Yang (yuan.yang at balliol.ox.ac.uk)
Publicity (Print) - Joe Lloyd (joe.lloyd at some.ox.ac.uk)
Live Events - Nanette O'Brien (nanette.obrien at st-annes.ox.ac.uk)
Fund - Laura Marsh (laura.marsh at chch.ox.ac.uk), Eloise (eloise.stonborough at seh.ox.ac.uk)

If you have any ideas for how you'd like the above things to be done better, don't hesitate to get in contact with the appropriate person. And we always like hearing from you...

See you soon!

Next term!

2008-12-31T13:38:00.001Z

Our brand new term card has arrived...and there are LOTS of treats in store...

THURSDAY READINGS:

Wk 1 (22/01) - Burns' Night Winter Warmer reading by RODDY LUMSDEN

Wk 2 (29/01) - TRANSLATION FESTIVAL featuring David Constantine, editor of 'Modern Poetry in Translation' magazine, as well as Simon Smith, poet-translator of Catallus.

Wk 3 (05/02) - Tall Lighthouse's PILOT POETS Emily Berry, Camellia Stafford, Vidyan Ravinthiran

Wk 4 (12/02) - poet laureate ANDREW MOTION

Wk 5 (19/02) - JAMIE MC KENDRICK

Wk 6 (26/02) - RUTH PADEL

Wk 7 (05/03) - FRANCES LEVISTON

Wk 8 (12/03) - JOHN SIDDIQUE

*

WORKSHOPS

Our regular workshops meet, as last year, on Wednesdays in The Mitre, starting promptly at 8pm, so please come along and meet some of Oxford's young and decidedly alcoholic poets!

And aside from our wednesday workshops, we've ALSO got these masterclasses:

Wk 3 (06/02) - a special pre-Valentine's Day Sonnet Workshop at Christ Church in Lecture rm 1.
Wk 5 (20/02) - Translation Workshop to hone your skills and follow up the festival in second week.

*

COMPETITION

OUPS will administrate the Martin Starkie Poetry Competition, as well as the Declamation Competition during Hilary 2009.

*

--MEMBERSHIP: £10 termly or £25 yearly including entry to all events, so very good value! Readings are £3 each to non-members. Wine is included.

Don't forget to join our mailing list if you'd like to receive updates on the readings and events that we are running as well as other ways to get involved. Email eloise.stonborough@seh.ox.

ac.uk to sign up.

Open Mic!

2008-11-22T12:18:00.000Z

Thanks so much to everyone who read at our open mic night on Thursday. We had cake, wine, crisps and readings from this splendid bunch:

Ben Doeh
Charlotte Geater
Christopher Jones
Dorian Van Braâm
Elizabeth Wenger
Eloise Stonborough
Geoffrey Lim
Geraldine Clarkson
James Lowe
Madeline Wright
Mark Mayes
Minoo Dinshaw
Nannette O’Brien
Paul Kelly
Peter Lomax
Richard O’Brien
Robert Rapoport
Ross Smith
Sammy Jay
Sean Hughes
Sophie McGrath
Stephen Bochonek
Will Davies
William Harris &
Yuan Yang

Only two weeks of term left now - don't forget MATTHEW HOLLIS on Thursday of 7th* and then DALJIT NAGRA** (!) the next week on Dec 4th, including the OUPS CHRISTMAS RAFFLE. Expect great things.

Also remember we're trying to collect a poem each from the people who read on Thursday so we can put them up here. Email me with your poems! - laura.marsh@chch.ox.ac.uk

*Nov 27th, the Pontigny Room at Teddy Hall, 8pm
**Dec 4th, Lecture Rm 1, Christ Church, 8pm

A Thought on Donald Rumsfeld

2008-11-20T11:51:00.001Z

You remember that thing about known unknowns and unknown unknowns? No?

The Unknown (Donald Rumsfeld)

As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know
We don't know.

It sparked a whole genre of political found poetry.

"On Good and Evil" (Sarah Palin)

It is obvious to me
Who the good guys are in this one
And who the bad guys are.
The bad guys are the ones
Who say Israel is a stinking corpse,
And should be wiped off
The face of the earth.

That's not a good guy.

Okay, so here's my question: what about unknown knowns? Things we don't know we know, but nonetheless we know them. It's kind of like Proust says, "We possess all our memories, but not the faculty of recalling them... What, then, is a memory which we do not recall?"

Wednesday Workshops

2008-11-20T11:22:00.000Z

Executive Summary of this Post:

1. Free Workshop every Wednesday 8pm in the Mitre on High Street.

2. Look for the person in the photo (Tom), or a table with a poetry book on it.

3. Bring five to ten copies of your poem to read, so we can all have one.

4. Come, get feedback on your own work, and steal ideas from others!

As well as weekly readings on Thursdays, Poetry Society holds a free workshop every Wednesday which is open to everyone, whether or not you're a member. They are held at the Mitre, which is on the north side of the High Street on the corner with Turl Street. They start at 8pm. At these workshops, everyone brings a poem they have written or are working on, and reads it, and we talk about it a little bit. You don't even have to bring a poem if you don't want, you can just come and listen t what your peers are writing, and then criticise (or praise) them!

We hold it in the pub, despite some downsides, because (1) it's easy to find and no organisation is required to book it, (2) we want the evening to be totally informal, relaxed and unintimidating, and (3) we like to drink beer and even have the occasional ice-cream sundae. This does cause a slight problem: when you come to the Mitre at 8pm on a Wednesday, you need to know where Poetry Society is! Sometimes lots of people come, sometimes hardly any, so it's no use looking for a big group louldy declaiming verse, especially if you arrive on time (which you should do!) when we're unlikely to have actually started reading yet.

In order to solve this problem, we are instituting some SIGNS and GUIDES. Firstly, look at the photograph at the top of this post. That is me, Tom Cutterham (Society Treasurer). Either I or Ben Doehy (photo to appear shortly - he has curly hair!) will pretty much be there every week, so look out for us! Secondly, in case my face isn't handsomely memorable enough, I will be bringing some kind of poetry-related book along every week from now on, so look out for a table with a book on it! Most of the Mitre's clientele are pub-golfers and tourists, so except for guidebooks there's unlikely to be much other reading material around to confuse you.

I really hope this will make it easier for people to come. And you should, because it's a fun way to get feedback on poems you're working on, and to hear what other people in Oxford are doing. I promise everyone will be very friendly and you absolutely mustn't be embarrassed to come and read! There's one other thing you should know: please try to bring multiple copies (between five and ten, say) of the poem you want to read, so that everyone can look at it; that really helps.

Thanks,
Tom

A Reading from Geoffrey Hill

2008-11-12T14:50:00.000Z

IX from The Triumph of Love

On chance occasions –
and others have observed this – you can see the wind,
as it moves, barely a separate thing,
the inner wall, the cell, of an hourglass, humming
vortices, bright particles in dissolution,
a roiling plug of sand picked up
as a small dancing funnel. It is how
the purest apprehension might appear
to take corporeal shape.

I love Hill’s sensitivity to the weight of words, how the mental (and real) tongue and ear lift and drop sounds, how the eyes imagine clusters and densities of letters, and attribute physicality to shifting speech particles. The aural-syntactical quality of this poem appeals to my ear, so I decided to record a vocal interpretation of it:
Click the title of this blog to hear it.

Termcard

2008-10-28T23:09:00.000Z

Hello poetic Oxonians!

This term we have a very exciting programme of readings planned:

WEEK 3 (30/10): Paul Farley (winner of Whitbread Award and twice a Forward Prize winner)
WEEK 4 (06/11): Todd Swift
WEEK 5 (13/11): Colette Bryce (winner of the National Poetry Competition in 2003)
WEEK 6 (20/11): Open Mic
WEEK 7 (27/11): Matthew Hollis (poetry editor at Faber and Faber)
WEEK 8 (04/12): Daljit Nagra (author of the acclaimed 'Look We Have Coming to Dover!')

The first of these will take place at Christ Church in Lecture Room 1 (actually a very cosy room despite the name) on Thursday 30th at 8.30pm. Free for members/ £3 to join on the night. Arrive between 8 and 8.30pm to get good seats/soak up the poetic atmosphere (there will be lots of this).

*

If you want to do some extra clicking, you can watch a video of Paul doing a tour of Tate Liverpool, talking about the Liverpool he grew up in and 1964 as "a pop cultural year zero" here:
http://mesn.museumpods.com/video/video/show?id=917795:Video:3056

or listen to him reading some of his poems at the wonderful Poetry Archive:

http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoet.do?poetId=27

*

Hope you can make it!

Laura

p.s.

Find the event on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=14484989969

Roses are red, / violets are blue, / some poems rhyme...

2008-10-22T16:36:00.000+01:00

My resolution for this term is to write more rhyming poetry. I thought, most of the poems I like most rhyme; so why doesn't the poetry I write? Well the first reason must be that it is so hard. But practice makes better! So that is my task - one poem every week that rhymes.

Trying to write something that rhymed made me realise that this means I have to take a little more account of form. This is something I don't know much about (I'm not an English student so hopefully that partially excuses me). I was therefore wondering if anyone had any suggestions about cool forms that I might try? Preferably fairly short, like less than fifty lines. Please tell me in the comments!

On the subject of forms, I love this self-referential poem (by Anthony Hecht? Or maybe not?), which once caused me a whole summer of attempting to write double dactyl poems:

Higgledy-Piggledy
Dactyls in dimeter,
Verse form with choriambs
(Masculine rhyme):
One sentence (two stanzas)
Hexasyllabically
Challenges poets who
Don't have the time.

On a Lighter Note...

2008-10-15T12:07:00.000+01:00

http://www.savagechickens.com/2008/10/poetry-blog.htm

Peacefulness with death

2008-10-13T21:47:00.000+01:00

my friend went to a funeral this weekend of a former friend who committed suicide.

i find words are often inadequate at the best of times, but in this kind of situation, to speak of death or offer consolation in any way - pretty pants really..
but it was in this kind of situation that words first really spoke to me. 12 years ago, my first personal encounter with death, when daisy the dog died and made me feel empty and kind of quiet inside. but our chaplain read out this (poem one) by bishop brent and it was the first time poetry seemed to work.

since then, years later - i have been quite into rumi, and came across a poem under the heading 'grief song, praise song: peacefulness with death' which brought me right back to that brent one. i apologise for adding a more melancholy tone, but maybe this kind of peacefulness at evening time is sometimes nice to speak of.

-------------------------------------------------------
What is dying?
I am standing on the sea shore.
A ship sails to the morning breeze and starts for the ocean.
She is an object of beauty and I stand watching her till at last she fades on the horizon,
and someone at my side says, 'She is gone'.
Gone where?
Gone from my sight, that is all;
she is just as large in the masts, hull and spars as she was when I saw her,
and just as able to bear her load of living freight to its destination.
The diminished size and total loss of sight is in me, not in her;
and just at the moment when someone at my side says,
'She is gone',
there are others who are watching her coming,
and other voices take up a glad shout, 'There she comes'
- and that is dying.

---------------------------------------------------

On the day I die, when I'm being carried
toward the grave, don't weep. Don't say

He's gone! He's gone. Death has nothing
to do with going away. The sun sets and

the moon sets, but they're not gone.
Death is a coming together. The tomb

looks like a prison, but it's really
release into union. The human seed goes

down in the ground like a bucket into
the well where Joseph is. It grows and

comes up full of some unimagined beauty.
Your mouth closes here and immediately

opens with a shout of joy there.

--------------------------------------------------

S√he

2008-10-13T21:20:00.000+01:00

A poem by Saul Williams

i presented

my feminine side

with flowers

she cut the stems

and placed them gently

down my throat

and these tu lips

might soon eclipse

your brightest hopes

Reflections

2008-10-10T10:57:00.000+01:00

Poetry is a personal thing; I've always seen it that way at least. I've never been able to write it without rawness, without some emotion bubbling away, pouring out into the words; pouring out like lifeblood into words, harsh words, beautiful words, words of hope and despair.

In a way, of the poems I've written, my favourite are the ones I would never show anyone, and the ones that no-one would ever really want to read. The ones that wouldn't be any good if judged. Yet I love the poems which are one place, one time, one specific time something ugly and beautifully real flowed out.

I've never understood the impulse to write in that way; why one would want to do it. Poetry is aesthetic, it can't be denied. Argue whatever you like, even the most confessional poet expresses themselves in precise and measured tones, or else there is no joy or pleasure in reading it. Yet I sometimes I write poems which agree with this basic rule in no way.

I think it provides a frame; it lets you control and manipulate primal gale-force winds. It's like turning a scream into clay on a potter's wheel.

I find that cathartic.

The Orange

2008-10-03T12:45:00.000+01:00

Dear Reader, welcome to the 'blog of the Oxford University Poetry Society. I thought it would be nice to start by getting all the contributors to post a favourite poem, and some words about it. Let's not worry about copyright problems until we actually start getting sued, eh?

I first read this poem when I was first in love with the first girl I was in love with. I read it before I had ever written any poetry, and after I had read it I wanted to write poetry myself, as well as read everything Wendy Cope had written. No romantic poem has ever felt to me more true to the feeling of being in love than this. This poem says, it is possible to be happy.

The Orange

At lunchtime I bought a huge orange -
The size of it made us all laugh.
I peeled it and shared it with Robert and Dave -
They got quarters and I had a half.

And that orange, it made me so happy,
As ordinary things often do
Just lately. The shopping. A walk in the park.
This is peace and contentment. It's new.

The rest of the day was quite easy.
I did all the jobs on my list
And enjoyed them and had some time over.
I love you. I'm glad I exist.

by Wendy Cope, from Serious Concerns (1992)