Tuesday Poem

The editor of Tuesday Poem this week is Joanna Preston who has just recently won the prestigious Mary Gilmore Prize for her collection Summer King. The award is for the best first collection published in Australia over two years.

Joanna has chosen a poem by Welsh poet Gillian Clarke for the Tuesday Poem hub this week - she says: 'Gillian Clarke is a Welsh poet, playwright, editor and translator, and one of the most important figures in contemporary Welsh poetry. She was also my tutor on the MPhil at the University of Glamorgan.'

Called Love at Livebait, the poem begins:

That time she stepped out of the rain
into the restaurant, and suddenly I knew.
Beautiful in her black coat,
her scarf that shocking pink
of fuchsia, geranium, wild campion,
and he at the table, his eyes her mirror.

And after that, flick to the live blog roll of 30 poets from NZ, the US, the UK and Ireland to read a host of poems that are both beautiful and shocking, gentle and revealing, provocative and charming. They are by the poets themselves and by poets that have been chosen .... You can find poetry on video, digital poetry, and there's even a poem you can contribute to.

Or roll down to Friday's posting for National Poetry Day on the TP hub - you'll find poems there by the three finalists of the Best Book of Poetry Award: Bernadette Hall, Michael Harlow and Brian Turner.  What's not to like?
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