The Poetry Platform

The multi award-winning ‘antidote to panel games’ returns and could we have our hands on the best rendition of the Hokey Cokey, ever? The series begins at The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester where Rory Bremner and Gary Delaney are pitched against Tony Hawks and Pippa Evans, with Jack Dee in the role of reluctant chairman. Regular listeners will know to expect inspired nonsense, pointless revelry and Colin Sell at the piano. I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue | Listen on BBC Sounds

Hope

I had been carrying hope
in my pocket like it was
polished gemstone for years

whenever trouble came
I’d squeeze hope tightly
in my shaking hand

and I could feel
it bump against my
palm like a newborn
heartbeat

that’s how
I knew that
I was safe

recently though,
I somehow lost my hope

I have no idea if I put it down
somewhere or if it slipped out
while I was fumbling for my keys

without being able
to hold onto hope

I soon became lost myself

after a while of wandering
in the wild on my own

I bumped into hope
~ who looked so different

hope was no longer a
little gemstone that could
Fit in my pants pocket

hope was a now a wide stream
cutting through the woods

“I thought I lost you!” I admonished

the river grabbed a couple of
rainbow trout and used them
to smile at me

“lost me?” The water babbled. “That’s impossible!”

“Well, one minute I was holding onto you and the next you were gone.”

“I needed to change forms,” Hope replied.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because you’ve been carrying me for so long that I decided we should try something different.”

“What’s that?”

“I thought I would take a turn carrying you for a bit.”

the river rose
up around me

and pulled me gently onto
my back

I was floating

I didn’t realize how exhausted I was
until the river held me

and hope carried me
and hope carried me
and hope carried me

~now whenever trouble comes

I just spread my arms open
and let hope wrap me up in
her slow water

and I can still feel it
pulse against me like a
newborn heartbeat

that’s how
I know that
I’m safe

I don’t know where
we are going

hope and I
still appear to
be lost

but at least we
are together

maybe we will stay lost out
here for a while longer

funny enough, I’m in no rush
to get to our destination

because it has been so long
since I’ve felt held by anything

and I think I could really
get used to it “

~ by John Roedel In upcoming book “wonderache”

ANGELS, by Mary Oliver
You might see an angel anytime
and anywhere. Of course you have
to open your eyes to a kind of
second level, but it’s not really
hard. The whole business of
what’s reality and what isn’t has
never been solved and probably
never will be. So I don’t care to
be too definite about anything.
I have a lot of edges called Perhaps
and almost nothing you can call
Certainty. For myself, but not
for other people. That’s a place
you just can’t get into, not
entirely anyway, other people’s
heads.

I’ll just leave you with this.
I don’t care how many angels can
dance on the head of a pin. It’s
enough to know that for some people
they exist, and that they dance.
(Art by Yaara Eshet)

It’s been a while….thought this poem by Justin Quinn was worth sharing

A little Rilke wisdom to start the day
💚