What is a lifesaving poem?

Anthony Wilson, , , , , , , , , , , ,

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Tomorrow I will be taking part at the Wenlock Poetry Festival in an event with Roz Goddard. We will be in conversation together discussing my forthcoming Bloodaxe anthology Lifesaving Poems.

Among our topics of conversation will be how we discover poetry and what it does to us; the intersection of our expectations and experiences (including of poetry) as we read the poem; and how far we can say that poetry is ‘lifesaving’.

I’ll be reading key, emblematic poems from the anthology, and telling the stories of how I first came across them.

I will also be telling something of my own personal story, including my diagnosis of cancer in 2006, and the challenge this posed in terms of losing my ability to read. I’ll be reading poems which express the frustrations of losing poetry altogether and which question the efficacy of our culture’s typical depiction of cancer as a ‘battle’.

To borrow Sylvia Plath’s phrase, we will be looking at nothing less than the means by which words can govern a life. I look forward to seeing you there.

 

Published by Anthony Wilson

I am a lecturer, poet and writing tutor. I work in teacher and medical education at the University of Exeter. My anthology Lifesaving Poems was published by Bloodaxe Books in 2015. In 2012 I published Riddance (Worple Press), a collection of poems, and Love for Now (Impress Books), a memoir, about my experience of cancer. The Wind and the Rain, my sixth collection of poems, is available now from Blue Diode Publishing. My current research project, funded by the Foyle Foundation, is Young Poets' Stories: https://youngpoetsstories.com/. This blog is archived by the British Library.

6 Comments

  1. It’s like a song you want to hear over and over again. Living and feeling the words flowing into your soul. Lifting you higher and higher.

    Sent from my iPad. lca

    Leah.

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  2. I so wanted to come to Wenlock to hear you speak as it’s in my neck of the woods, but I was asked to be part of a walking weekend on Exmoor, more your neck of the woods, so I chose walking in the thought that I would be making my own poetry and that you would understand and approve. I wish you and all a wonderful wordy weekend.

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  3. I was there, and really enjoyed the interview / chat. My main disappointment was that it was too short and that your event then ‘bumped into’ the next one. I would have liked the chance to ask a few questions and possible have a chat.

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