#28 An Anglo-American Sandwich

Thank you Read Write Poem for mentioning that Carol Ann Duffy is joint favourite, with Simon Armitage, to be the next poet laureate here in the U.K. I used a phrase from her collection Rapture in my collage poem on day 22 of NaPoWri Mo. The present laureate, Andrew Motion, has done much to promote poetry with the Poetry Archive, but although there are some female poets, Duffy and Jackie Kay (also included in the betting) are not included. Both, however, can be found on the British Council site and Famous Poets and Poets, which also features American poets.

Today, I have written a list poem using Andy Sewina’s American Sandwich, which is based on Allen Ginsberg’s American sentence (17 syllables like the haiku). Andy lives in the Manchester area of the U.K., which is where I have my roots. The prompt at Read Write Poem is ’seeing red’. I’ve given my American sandwich a British flavour by making it red white and blue. If I had more time, I would have worked at the rhythm more.

Red blooded, ruddy, robust, violent tempered, bolshie, leftie, Marxist
White skinned, Caucasian, bloodless, blanched, ashen, pure, clean, whitewash, coward
Blue blooded, patrician, profane, racy, risqué, dejected, down, sad.

P.S. I couldn’t make the ‘white’ white as you wouldn’t be able to read it.

And my Naisaiku, also with a red theme.

the last day of April
with thirty blossoms blooming
A RED LETTER DAY
with thirty poems written
the last day a party

#22 Collage

We move on tiny decks
past fraying cliffs of water;
me with lemonade for you
in a paper cup. As your
fingers braid with mine
behind me roars the other world
where one dream cuts another open.

Day 22 of NaPoWriMo with Read Write Poem. The above lines were obtained using phrases taken from poems by Philip Larkin, Derek Mahon (Ulster born and my favourite contemporary poet), Carol Ann Duffy, W H Auden and Jackie Kay.

I’ve deliberately chosen British, or I should say British born poets, as Wystan crossed the pond, became an American citizen and was  Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets from 1954 to 1973).  Carol Ann Duffy and Jackie Kay are contemporary British female poets.