Elsie Hayward - A Poetry Society Poet

Here Elsie Hayward proves that age has nothing to do with talent nor youth anything to do with intellect. This is performance poetry at its very best.

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All poems are copyright of the poet. Permission for this poet to post their work here has been granted by blog owner. All rights remain with the individual poet and their respective publisher.

Leonard Cohen (with grateful thanks to CollenBoye)

This from the unforgettable Leonard Cohen. Words from his "Death of a Lady's Man" video courtesy of YouTube




Take the word butterfly. To use this word it is not necessary to make the voice weigh less than an ounce or equip it with small dusty wings. It is not necessary to invent a sunny day or a field of daffodils. It is not necessary to be in love, or to be in love with butterflies. The word butterfly is not a real butterfly. There is the word and there is the butterfly. If you confuse these two items people have the right to laugh at you. Do not make so much of the word. Are you trying to suggest that you love butterflies more perfectly than anyone else, or really understand their nature? The word butterfly is merely data. It is not an opportunity for you to hover, soar, befriend flowers, symbolize beauty and frailty, or in any way impersonate a butterfly. Do not act out words. Never act out words. Never try to leave the floor when you talk about flying. Never close your eyes and jerk your head to one side when you talk about death. Do not fix your burning eyes on me when you speak about love. If you want to impress me when you speak about love put your hand in your pocket or under your dress and play with yourself. If ambition and the hunger for applause have driven you to speak about love you should learn how to do it without disgracing yourself or the material.
Speak the words with the exact precision with which you would check out a laundry list. Do not become emotional about the lace blouse. Do not get a hard-on when you say panties. Do not get all shivery just because of the towel. The sheets should not provoke a dreamy expression about the eyes. There is no need to weep into the handkerchief. The socks are not there to remind you of strange and distant voyages. It is just your laundry. It is just your clothes. Don't peep through them. Just wear them.

Avoid the flourish. Do not be afraid to be weak. Do not be ashamed to be tired. You look good when you're tired. You look like you could go on forever. Now come into my arms. You are the image of my beauty.

The poem is nothing but information. It is the Constitution of the inner country. If you declaim it and blow it up with noble intentions then you are no better than the politicians whom you despise. You are just someone waving a flag and making the cheapest kind of appeal to a kind of emotional patriotism. Think of the words as science, not as art. They are a report. You are speaking before a meeting of the Explorers' Club of the National Geographic Society. These people know all the risks of mountain climbing. They honour you by taking this for granted. If you rub their faces in it that is an insult to their hospitality. Tell them about the height of the mountain, the equipment you used, be specific about the surfaces and the time it took to scale it. Do not work the audience for gasps and sighs. If you are worthy of gasps and sighs it will not be from your appreciation of the event but from theirs. It will be in the statistics and not the trembling of the voice or the cutting of the air with your hands. It will be in the data and the quiet organization of your presence. .
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All poems are copyright of the poet. Permission for this poet to post their work here has been granted by blog owner. All rights remain with the individual poet and their respective publisher.

The Return of Spoken Word Poetry on Something For The Weekend, Sir?

Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash. Leonard Cohen

Frustrated at my lack of success in gathering poets to record their work then post it here each Friday saw me 'lifting' spoken word poetry off YouTube. I couldn't arouse the interest of poets to join what I saw as a spoken word relay so I turned instead to YouTube. That worked well enough for a while but still left me feeling dissatisfied. Then, with the third mutation this site has seen, I started posting YouTube videos of the music I liked which I thought might be interesting to others. However, once a passion has been kindled then doused time takes its time but eventually, time rekindles the flame. The flame is again burning bright. Poetry is a thing I love. Spoken Word Poetry is a passion of mine. I stopped posting the spoken word a little over a year ago. I hope it will return here as soon as possible. There is a glimmer of a possibility it might. 

I would also like to continue with this site's 'Poetry Book of the Year' award. It seems a little pretentious somehow yet feels right. 'Something For The Weekend, Sir?" is hardly cutting edge and certainly not a universally accepted voice on poetry. I would like it to be but to that end, we would have to work hard. I feel unable to do full justice to such a concept. I find it easy to write about art, novels and music but not so poetry. I know I love it, increasingly so, yet still, those words dazzle me. With Roger Stevens and Michael Leigh my co-administrators of this site I thought perhaps we could field a team of adjudicators who could judge what they thought to be the best poetry book of the year but I think we require another, a female I think to add balance. That still seems insufficient numbers to form a judging panel. I am also unsure as to how to make the judging function. For example, I may read a book by Barry Hill which I think is brilliant. Do I then send my copy to one of the adjudicators to read? That would be a long process if the book has to be forwarded 4 or 5 times.

I am hoping that when Janet comes on board, no pressure intended, she will kick-start the relay so that it runs for a good while on the fuel she may supply with the contacts she knows. When that surge runs its natural course I again hope that what has been started will have gained notice so that others will join to continue the process. I am hoping.

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All poems are copyright of the poet. Permission for this poet to post their work here has been granted by blog owner. All rights remain with the individual poet and their respective publisher.

Sarah Kay on Spoken Word Poetry

"I also think you certainly can perform any poem. But what I believe is that the best examples of spoken word poetry I’ve ever seen, are spoken word poems that, when you see them, you’re aware of the fact they need to be performed. That there’s something about that poem that you would not be able to understand if you were just reading it on a piece of paper. Some element of the performance that brings more meaning to the words. And sometimes it’s just one tiny moment, and sometimes it’s the entire poem."

with grateful thanks to The Eye - https://saseye.com/

And also Wikipedia

. . All poems are copyright of the poet. Permission for this poet to post their work here has been granted by blog owner. All rights remain with the individual poet and their respective publisher.

Jack Kerouac

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All poems are copyright of the poet. Permission for this poet to post their work here has been granted by blog owner. All rights remain with the individual poet and their respective publisher.

Denise Levertov

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All poems are copyright of the poet. Permission for this poet to post their work here has been granted by blog owner. All rights remain with the individual poet and their respective publisher.

Spoken Word Poetry

. . All poems are copyright of the poet. Permission for this poet to post their work here has been granted by blog owner. All rights remain with the individual poet and their respective publisher.

DYLEMA

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 All poems are copyright of the poet. Permission for this poet to post his/her work here has been granted by blog owner. All rights remain with the individual poet and their respective publisher.

Cecilia Woloch

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All poems are copyright of the poet. Permission for this poet to post his/her work here has been granted by blog owner. All rights remain with the individual poet and their respective publisher.

Ted Hughes

. . All poems are copyright of the poet. Permission for this poet to post his/her work here has been granted by blog owner. All rights remain with the individual poet and their respective publisher.

Sylvia Plath

. . All poems are copyright of the poet. Permission for this poet to post his/her work here has been granted by blog owner. All rights remain with the individual poet and their respective publisher.

Porsche Kelly

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All poems are copyright of the poet. Permission for this poet to post his/her work here has been granted by blog owner. All rights remain with the individual poet and their respective publisher.

Roger Stevens

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All poems are copyright of the poet. Permission for this poet to post his/her work here has been granted by blog owner. All rights remain with the individual poet and their respective publisher.

Hollie McNish

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All poems are copyright of the poet. Permission for this poet to post his/her work here has been granted by blog owner. All rights remain with the individual poet and their respective publisher.

Megan Burns

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All poems are copyright of the poet. Permission for this poet to post his/her work here has been granted by blog owner. All rights remain with the individual poet and their respective publisher.

Jennifer K Dick

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All poems are copyright of the poet. Permission for this poet to post his/her work here has been granted by blog owner. All rights remain with the individual poet and their respective publisher.

Billy Collins

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All poems are copyright of the poet. Permission for this poet to post his/her work here has been granted by blog owner. All rights remain with the individual poet and their respective publisher.

Brian Patten

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All poems are copyright of the poet. Permission for this poet to post his/her work here has been granted by blog owner. All rights remain with the individual poet and their respective publisher.

Sophia Thakur

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All poems are copyright of the poet. Permission for this poet to post his/her work here has been granted by blog owner. All rights remain with the individual poet and their respective publisher.

Simon Armitage

. . All poems are copyright of the poet. Permission for this poet to post his/her work here has been granted by blog owner. All rights remain with the individual poet and their respective publisher.