A Gem in the Wordpile
About this webinar
This is a term I use when working with children who might be intimidated by a hard poem.
I ask them to find something that shines out in the lines. A happier hardness. A handle, A door.
I have been writing pieces about John Keats recently and somebody asked me a poem of his that I would recommend. I instinctively suggested A Song of Myself. Asked why, I replied that it was a doorway into the rest of the work. A light. A tool. In my own time at Bradford University, a tool I was given by lecturer Jack Morrell was the idea that science does not always need to operate on a true description of the world An adequate one, will sometimes do. I aim to speak about gems, tools, doors, handles, lights, education, and Bradford. Here is a poem relating to the last two.
A father's protest
My father played the banjo
but it’s more guitar for me
and I came from Bradford, Yorkshire
with a rather poor degree.
I only received a Lower Second
but, without it I should add -
there would not be
this poetry;
you try telling my dad!
I had a dream the other night,
I was playing my guitar
when I was kicked quite forcefully
by Monsieur Cantona.
I said, ‘hey, Eric,
now why do that to me?’
He said, ‘that is from your father,
for your rather poor degree.’
Schedule/programme
Tuesday, 18th May (17:00-18:00 GMT)