First of the Last Chances E-Book

Sophie Hannah

• Herausgeber: Carcanet Poetry
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Best-selling poet Sophie Hannah returns with a wonderful collection of poems that explore and celebrate strong feelings: love, hate, anger, hope - and which strip away the veils of hypocrisy and pretence from all aspects of everyday life. From relationships to the world of work, motherhood and marriage, Sophie Hannah tells it how it is in her own inimitable style. Funny and moving, these poems combine traditional form and rhyme with a contemporary take on modern life that simultaneously raises a smile and provides thoughts to linger over. This collection also include A Woman's Life and Loves, eight poems set to music by the composer Gabriel Jackson that form a song cycle originally concieved as a contemporary and feminist response to the Schumann song cycle. Sophie Hannah's first book was greeted with amazement. The Poetry Review declared, 'Shall I put it in capitals? SOPHIE HANNAH IS A GENIUS.' Each subsequent collection has been formally more inventive, thematically more complex, yet each has met with a similar welcome, and she has become that rare thing, a popular and best-selling poet.

Leseprobe

SOPHIE HANNAH

First of the Last Chances

For Phoebe with love

Acknowledgements

Some of these poems have previously appeared in the following publications: The Times Literary Supplement, Critical Quarterly, The New Delta Review, The Hudson Review, Mslexia, PN Review, Poetry Review, The Gift: New Writing for the NHS (Stride), Earth Has Not Anything to Shew More Fair (Shakespeare’s Globe and the Wordsworth Trust), Last Words: New Poetry for the New Century (Picador).

‘Brief Encounter’ was commissioned by First NorthWestern Trains, ‘Where to Look’ was commissioned by Acoustiguide for the reopening of Manchester City Art Gallery, and ‘Seasonal Dilemma’ was commissioned by the British Council for their 2001 Christmas card.

The eight poems of ‘A Woman’s Life and Loves’ were commissioned by Ann Martin-Davis for a music touring project called ‘Cycles’. ‘Cycles’ was sponsored by ClearBlue and produced with funds from the RVW Trust, the Britten–Pears Foundation, the Performing Right Society Foundation for New Music, Southern and South East Arts, and the Arts Council of England.

Contents

Title Page

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Long for This World

You Won’t Find a Bath in Leeds

Out of This World

Wells-Next-the-Sea

Six of One

Seasonal Dilemma

Second-hand Advice for a Friend

Dark Mechanic Mills

Martins Heron Heart

Tide to Land

The Shadow Tree

He is Now a Country Member

Silk Librarian

God’s Eleventh Rule

Where to Look

Brief Encounter

The Cycle

Black River

The Cancellation

The Guest Speaker

Everyone in the Changing Room

Your Funeral

Away-day

Mother-to-be

Now and Then

Healing Powers

Homeopathy

Your Turn Next

To a Certain Person

0208

Leave

Ante-Natal

On Westminster Bridge

Ballade of the Rift

Wedding Poem

Royal Wedding Poem

GODISNOWHERE (Now Read Again)

Metaphysical Villanelle

Squirrel’s the Word

First of the Last Chances

A Woman’s Life and Loves

View

Equals

Postcard

Match

Bridesmaid

Test

Charge

Favourite

About the Author

Also by Sophie Hannah

Copyright

Long for This World

I settle for less than snow,

try to go gracefully as seasons go

which will regain their ground –

ditch, hill and field – when a new year comes round.

Now I know everything:

how winter leaves without resenting spring,

lives in a safe time frame,

gives up so much but knows he can reclaim

all titles that are his,

fall out for months and still be what he is.

I settle for less than snow:

high only once, then no way up from low,

then to be swept from drives.

Ten words I throw into your changing lives

fly like ten snowballs hurled:

I hope to be, and will, long for this world.

You Won’t Find a Bath in Leeds

From the River Cam and the A14

To the Aire and the tall M1,

We left the place where home had been,

Still wondering what we’d done,

And we went to Yorkshire, undeterred

By the hearts we’d left down south

And we couldn’t believe the words we heard

From the lettings agent’s mouth.

He showed us a flat near an abbatoir,

Then one where a man had died,

Then one with nowhere to park our car

Then one with no bath inside.

With the undertone of cheering

Of a person who impedes,

He looked straight at us, sneering,

‘You won’t find a bath in Leeds.’

‘We have come to Leeds from Cambridge.

We have heard that Leeds is nice.

A bath is seen in Cambridge

As an integral device,

So don’t tell me that a shower

Is sufficient to meet my needs,’

I said. I received a glower

And, ‘You won’t find a bath in Leeds.’

He fingered a fraying curtain

And I said, ‘You can’t be sure.

Some things in life are uncertain

And that’s what hope is for.

One day I might meet Robert Redford