In this collection of poems, I will explore three main existential concerns: life in general, love and loss, all arising from my own experience. The poems on the theme of life take the everyday as their subject matter ranging through my passions for textile-craft, gardening, my observations of the natural world, and my own, and others’, creativity. The love poems are mostly concerned with my love of my family and friends, but also recognise the four ancient Greek forms of love, i.e.: Eros, the idea of sexual passion and desire; Philia, or deep friendship; Agape, or love for everyone and Storge, or longstanding familial love. Loss is something which we all will experience, the more so if we have loved. My poems in this category are mostly concerned with death and grief but also touch on the loss of relationships. My research, as evidenced by my bibliography, will be into how other poets have approached each of my three themes. In my critical essay I intend to demonstrate this research condensed to an examination of the theme of loss. I have chosen this theme as I believe it to be the most complex and difficult to convey, despite being universally experienced. The poetry collections I shall study with specific respect to loss will include Max Porter’s Grief is the Thing with Feathers and Helen Dunmore’s Inside the Wave, but, as Bernard O’Donoghue has inspired me to write one of my poems, his Outliving is an essential text, as is Imtiaz Dharker’s Over the Moon which was recommended to me by a friend. It is these two poets’ work that has prompted my research question: ‘How do poets Imtiaz Dharker and Bernard O’Donoghue approach the theme of loss in their work and what impact has this had on my own writing?’ In my preparatory reading I have found many poet’s voices which speak to me and many of their poems have provided me with moments of recognition, consolation and fellow feeling. The question that interests me lies in the oxymoron that we are allthe same/ we are each unique; we all experience very similar events in our lives but we each experience them differently. If we turn to poetry for solace, or explanation, or just to connect with another mind, is it necessary for us to have experienced an event in a similar way? Is it arguable that reading someone else’s experience of life, love or loss, albeit different, can help us cope with our own? I shall explore critical writing both by and about poets. This will include works by editors and essays by poets themselves, along with introductions to anthologies and collections. At the end of my research I hope to have gained insights which will inform my own creative practice. Ultimately, I think my poems are simple, accessible, translations of human experience and I hope to find other poets, who write on the same themes, whose work will impact on my own.
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