This is the last episode of the season one, and as we are heading into a long winter of uncertainty I decided that the last poem of the season should be one of hope and consolation. So this week I will look at the poem Everything is going to be alright, by the recently deceased Derek Mahon. This poem is reached a global audience online during the early days of the pandemic's outbreak when Andrew Scott read it. 

As a final treat, I will also read to you my latest poem, This too shall pass, which was inspired by this poem and the ancient Arabian proverb which hinted at the transient nature of life, but in this poem, its application is narrowed down to days of suffering. I hope you enjoy it.

To read the poem, as usual click on the big large HERE.

Ditto HERE if you want to learn a wee bit more about the poet.

To watch him read his poem on Youtube click HERE.

To learn some more about my poetry, go on, and click HERE. You know you want to. You can also read my poem HERE.

I hope you enjoyed listening to my podcast and reading these poems, I will be back in January with season 2. Until then, I hope you all keep safe and well, and whatever good comes your way, may you enjoy it to the full. Don't forget to read more poetry though. 

Okay, a little advance warning, this poem looks at the topic of suicide, but this poem deals with the way we cope when we hear of the sad loss of a family member and the way we sometimes think about the pointless deaths of those we love.

In this poem, we are taken from the moment when two brothers are clearing leaves as they fall from the garden to the father selling the car one in which the always present sibling has shot himself in. However, it is done with a twist. 

To read the poem, click HERE.

To hear the poem, click HERE.

To learn more about Matt's work click HERE. 

If you feel like reading poetry and want to read some poems that you have never read before, then please read about my work as a poet click HERE.

This week we go back in time to the work of a poet who was a famed member of the New York School of poets. This poem recounts the day that Billie Holiday died and recounts the events of that day from the poet's point of view. This poem was part of the Lunch Poems.  It is an example of an elegy, but without the deep lamentations so commonly used in elegies.  There are a few things about this poem that I love, and why I want to share it with you this week, so listen along as I explain why I think, you should read this poem if you haven't already. 

To read the poem, click HERE.

Click HERE to watch Frank O'Hara read the poem.

To find out more about Frank O' Hara's work click on the link HERE.

To see the covers of the New World Writing and New York Post mentioned in this poem, go HERE

The cover photo for this week's episode is a picture of Billie Holiday singing at Storyville in Boston in 1959. The photo was taken by Mel Levine. 

To learn more about my writing then you can check out the link HERE.

This week I celebrate the work of another Irish poet, one who writes in both English and Irish and mixes both languages equally throughout her poems. She is part of an amazing wave of young Irish-speakers who have shown us that there is nothing shameful in being a proud Gael, and who often use both languages in the same conversations. Ciara has made this duality part of her identity. She also established Reic, an open-mic event in which poetry in Irish is celebrated.  

This poem is one that I always enjoy being performed because it has such an important message of female empowerment. So I wanted to share it with you this week.

To find out more about Ciara's work... click HERE.

To read the poem, click HERE. To see and hear it being performed, click HERE.

For more information about REIC, then click the link HERE.

The cover for this week's episode is a depiction of Macha racing the horses of King Conchobhar's horses. She was heavily pregnant when forced to race the horses after her husband had bragged about her great speed at his expense. Despite her protests that racing the horses would kill her, the king said that her husband would die if she didn't run. So she ran and beat the horses easily. Then she went into labour, gave birth to twins, and as she died she cursed the men of Ulster saying that at the time of their greatest need they would be struck down with labour pains and be unable to defend themselves. I have no information about the artist, but I think it captures the spirit of the poem. 

To find out some more about my work as a poet, follow the link down the borrow HERE.

This week's episode looks at a poem that takes imagery and twists it so that everything is shifting and the reality we are confronted with is completely at odds at what we thought it was going to be. Drawing on the imagery of Alice in Wonderland and that of a young woman selling access to video imagery of herself to others, this poem shows us how reality is being altered through the stories we tell others and ourselves of the people around us. 

To read the poem click right HERE!

To read more about Victoria Kennifick and her amazing work, go right ahead and click HERE.

The cover image for this episode is Mariana in the South by John William Waterhouse.  To learn a bit more about him, click HERE.

And lastly, if you want to learn a bit more about my own poetry, and what I have written, then just click HERE.

Again thanks for listening, if you want to comment on this episode, use the hashtags #poemsapennyeach, #pennypoems, or just #pape

This poem is an epic of Irish poetry. It takes its name from the translation for An Gorta Mór, the Irish name for the Great Famine of the 1840s that saw the death of one million Irish people, and the emigration of around two million more.

This poem uses that iconic moment in Irish cultural and historical awareness to discuss the longing and sexual starvation of a farmer who put the obligation of looking after the farm and his mother ahead of his own desires and wants. It is a wonderful poem full of rich imagery from rural Ireland. 

Read it HERE.

To learn a bit more about this amazing poet, check out the link HERE.

The cover picture is Gorta by Lillian Davidson, an artist from my home town. You can read a wee bit about her HERE.

To learn more about my work, check out the link HERE.

Sometimes, a poet is able to convey with just a few simple lines, exactly what it feels like to go through and emotional break-up. In Song of the Last Meeting, Anna Akhmatova does just that. Written in 1911, when she was only 22, this poem I think is one of the most painfully honest, and emotionally frank poems about what one goes through when their lover tells them that they are no longer wanted.

Read the poem HERE for yourself.

And learn a bit more about this amazing poet HERE.

The cover photo for this episode is The Portrait of Anna Akhmatova by Olga Della-Vos-Kardovskaya 1914.

As always, I encourage you to read the poem and learn about the poet, and if you like it, then let me know using the hashtag #poemsapennyeach on Twitter, or you can leave a voice message if you listen to me on Anchor. 

To learn more about my poetry, check out my website HERE.

So this week to celebrate the release of my newest book, I want to do something a little different. I want to share with you a selection of poems from my body of work that I am proud to have written, including a number of poems from my new book Oxide-Doo-La-Daisy. It comes out on Tuesday, September 15th and will be available online. 

To check out more about my work click on the link HERE.

And to find out some more information about the amazing Modpo course that is run by The Kelly Writer's House at the University of Pennsylvania, then click out the link HERE.

Next week the podcast will be back to normal.  

As a kid, this was one of the first poems that I ever really loved. It had everything going for it. It was about the things I did with my friends. It also had a funny twist, that made me giggle, and best of all, it used a form of the word fart. What was not to like about it? But as a poet, it also provides lessons in the use of language, and how the right word can change the experience from merely reading a poem to being right there experiencing it. And since the day before recording this episode marked the 7th anniversary of the death of Ireland's greatest ever poet, I wanted to discuss the first poem he wrote that I loved. Seamus Heaney was a wonderful poet and an absolute gentleman. May his memory give comfort to his family as his words have often comforted others. 

To read the poem, click HERE.

To learn about the life of Seamus Heaney, click HERE.

To visit the Seamus Heaney Home website, click HERE.

To buy the audiobook of Seamus reading his poetry, click HERE.

The recording used in this poem was taken from Seamus Heaney Collected Poems volume 1. Volume one of the definitive collection of Seamus Heaney reading his own work, recorded in 2009 by RTE. Volume one contains four collections published between 1966 and 1975: Death of a Naturalist, Door into the Dark, Wintering Out and North.

©1975 Seamus Heaney (P)2018 Faber Audio

For information about my work, check out the link HERE. 

Sylvia Plath is one of my favourite poets, and also one of my historical crushes. If I was to meet her I would totally fanboy like mad and go like Chandler Bing in that episode where Ross and Joey are dating the same girl who just moved into the building. 

Anyway, I digress. This poem is full of rich imagery that many seem to feel conveys the sense of the tragic female literary hero, hurt, betrayed, and abandoned by her husband, who, in a fragile state of mind, contemplates suicide. But I think this is one of those poems in which a person going through personal loss tries to buck themselves up with the promise that they will rise and be stronger. 

Sadly history didn't play out that way, but this is a powerful poem full of emotion and angst that appeals to many and is one of the first truly great feminist poems of the 20th century.  

To read it, click the link HERE.

To hear Sylvia read it, click HERE. 

And to read more about the life of Sylvia Plath, why go ahead and just click HERE.

 To learn more about my own work as a poet, and to find out more information about my new book Oxide-Doo-La-Daisy, which will be released on the 15th of September, then check out the link to my site HERE.

Sylvia Plath, “Lady Lazarus” from Collected Poems. Copyright © 1960, 1965, 1971, 1981 by the Estate of Sylvia Plath.

This podcast is being made for non-profit educational uses.