Carol Ann Duffy

I am a big fan of Duffy’s poetry; in fact, I have several collections of her work, and recently picked up a very thick compendium of her work. However, that did not stop me from picking up this adorable reprint of an earlier volume. What you can’t see in the image above, is the lovely matte gold background and little metallic gold bits in the flowers (it would make a nice gift for someone, hint, hint).

Duffy is the UK’s current poet laureate, appointed in 2009 (the first woman to hold show more the position). I love her poetry. LOVE. Her poetry is not pretentious, it’s accessible, often musical, moving and sometimes just plain fun. The overarching theme or symbol of this collection is the bee, precious and endangered, and there are many poems here about bees, but there are other poems that buzz around the same ideas: the precious and endangered. Here’s a short bee poem, the first of the collection:

BEES

Here are my bees,
brazen, blurs on paper
besotted; buzzwords, dancing
their flawless, airy maps.

Been deep, my poet bees,
in the parts of flowers,
in daffodil, thistle, rose, even
the golden lotus; so glide,
gilded, glad, golden, thus—

wise — and know of us:
how your scent pervades
my shadowed, busy heart
and honey is art.

————————
And here is one of my favorite poems from the collection:

THE WOMAN IN THE MOON

Darlings, I write to you from the moon
where I hide behind famous light.
How could you think it ever a man up here?
A cow jumped over. The dish ran away with

the spoon. What reached me were your joys, griefs,
here’s-the-craic, losses, longings, you lives
brief, mine long, a talented loneliness. I must have
a thousand names for the earth, my blue vocation.

Round I go, the moon a diet of light, sliver of peat,
wedge of lemon, slice of melon, half an orange,
silver onion; your human sound falling through space,
childbirth’s song, the lover’s song, the song of death.

Devoted as words to things, I gaze, gawp, deserts
where forests were, sick seas. When night comes,
I see you gaping back as through you hear my Darlings,
what have you done, what have you done to the world? show less

"Words, words were truly alive on the tongue, in the head,
warm, beating, frantic, winged; music and blood."

Within every [great- infamous- legendary- mythic] tale of a man is a woman with an equally important story to tell. These poems are Her stories.

From Beauty choosing the Beast because of his repugnant exterior to an overprotective Queen Herod to Mrs Sisyphus suffering a fool for a husband to a middle-aged Mrs Rip Van Winkle and her husband armed with Viagra -- each poem subverts show more well-known tales with its unique perspective, real or imagined.

I'd recommend this collection to anyone who wants to read poetry but often feels too intimidated to do so. Especially if that person has an interest in the feminist slant on myths, legends, fairy tales, pop culture, etc.

4 stars

"Mrs Midas"
I couldn't believe my ears:
how he'd had a wish. Look, we all have wishes; granted.
But who has wishes granted? Him. Do you know about gold?
It feeds no one; aurum, soft, nontarnishable; slakes
no thirst. He tried to light a cigarette; I gazed, entranced,
as the blue flame played on its luteous stem. At least,
I said, you'll be able to give up smoking for good.

"Mrs Beast"
But behind each player stood a line of ghosts
unable to win. Eve. Ashputtel. Marilyn Monroe.
Rapunzel slashing wildly at her hair.
Bessie Smith unloved and down and out.
Bluebeard's wives, Henry VIII's, Snow White
cursing the day she left the seven dwarfs, Diana,
Princess of Wales... show less

To the Moon is a mixed bag, like most poem anthologies. This selection by Carol Ann Duffy (the former Poet Laureate) has an interesting theme (the moon, obviously) but because of the variety of the poets there is no singular approach to that theme. For some of the poets, the moon is a mystery or a source of romance; for others it is cruel. For some it is central to their poem and for others it is just there to provide some colour. When one segment of the book did coalesce around a single show more approach – that is, when the modern poets started to address the Moon Landing – it became much more fascinating.

Regardless, it is an evocative book throughout. The silver satellite has "a talented loneliness", as Duffy puts it in her own contribution (pg. 164), and whilst the book does not mention it, I could not help but hear the cold-warm strains of Debussy's 'Clair de Lune' throughout. Some of the finest poetic minds are in this book, trying to grasp what the moon means to us, and you close the book "still feeling what it was like to dwell in that light" (pg. 157). show less

Scots poet Carol Ann Duffy teams up with the immensely talented artist Jane Ray in this original fairy-tale picture-book about the power (the terrible power!) of stories. Jub, whose job it is to disperse the Happy Endings that give the world's children such pleasure at bedtime, is robbed by a malicious old witch of her sack of endings, leading to widespread despair and unhappiness. After a night in which the tales told to children get more and more horrifying, Jub happens upon a golden pen show more in the woods, and is inspired to write a tale in which the witch meets a terrible fate, and the Happy Endings are regained...

The pen is indeed mightier than the sword in The Lost Happy Endings, as Jub's story comes to pass, just as she wrote it. I found Duffy's narrative here both engrossing and thought-provoking, but I wonder whether it might not be a little too gruesome for some young children, especially the more sensitive ones. Bushes crouch like muggers, the witch dreams of biting little birds' heads off and crunching on them, and so on. Of course, traditional folk and fairy-tales are awash in gore, so I might be worrying needlessly. Perhaps this tale only seems more frightening because of Duffy's knack for intense, evocative description. Whatever the case may be, I found this tale within a tale fascinating, and thought that Jane Ray's accompanying artwork was gorgeous. I can easily see why this one was short-listed for the Kate Greenaway Medal. Recommended to fairy-tale and story lovers who appreciate (despite the happy ending) a darker, grimmer selection. show less