Poem for Today - December 08

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December 08

It's with great sadness that I have to convey to you news of the death of the fine English poet Adrian Mitchell. Adrian was also my friend and collaborator and much celebrated in these programs. He was a poet of commitment who fought against the degrading of freedom and of the environment wherever he found it - and he found it in many places because he was very aware of the international situation. He will be an important voice lost to the world.

Read a poem by Adrian.

Sadly too, I have to tell you that the economic crisis has brought to an end Poem for Today's funding and it will have to stop being aired at the end of this month.

I would love to keep it going but it costs a considerable amount to make and I am penniless myself ...

There is, of course, a five-year catalogue of programs, so you may be able to persuade the station to re-broadcast them - or contact this site for specific shows/poems you would like to hear again. Over the years we've built up a substantial library of work and are always willing to help with your poetic searches.

We have a number of December-specific poems from American and British writers, together with many Christmas poems new to the show. Among birthdays we celebrate Carol Ann Duffy - hotly tipped to be the next Poet Laureate - Edward Arlington Robinson and Kenneth Rexroth, Philip Larkin, Rainer Maria Rilke and many more - truly a poetic feast.

Have an enjoyable poetic Christmas despite the frosty financial situation - and let's hope the New Year will bring us all better fortune ....

December

1	Bernard Spencer George Seferis/Spencer	English Greek	Behaviour of Money The Mourning Girl
2	Philip Larkin Czeslaw Milosz	English Lithuanian	Poetry of departures Continuing to Live Against Larkin
3	Matthew Arnold Anthony Hecht	English American	Dover Beach The Dover Bitch
4	Zsusza Rakovsky	Hungarian	Waiting Room Evening
5	Elizabeth Daryush Christina Rossetti	English English	I am the Daughter of the Sun 2 sonnets from Monna Innominata
8	Delmore Schwartz James Tate John F Deane Padraic Colum	American American Irish Irish	What is to be given A Knock at the Door In a Dark Night My Young Love said to Me
9	Rainer Maria Rilke	German	The Hour The Double Realm
10	Carol Rumens	English	The Hebrew Class The Emigrée
11	Tu Fu/Carolyn Kizer Birago Ismael Diop	Chinese/American Senegalese	Thwarted Vanity
12	Helen Dunmore	English	Wild Strawberries Three Ways of Recovering a Body
15	Muriel Rukeyser John Heath-Stubbs W S Merwin	American English American	Born in December December, Prayer to St Nicholas December Night
16	Clive Sansom	English	The Innkeeper’s Wife
17	U A Fanthorpe	English	Carol Concert Christmas Presents
18	U A Fanthorpe Robert Finch	English English	BC/AD The Crib
19	Louis MacNeice	N Irish	Christmas Shopping
22	Edward Arlington Robinson Kenneth Rexroth	American American	Karma The Bad Old Days
23	Carol Ann Duffy	English	From Mrs Tiresias
24	Howard Nemerov Cecil Day Lewis	American English	The Night Before Christmas Christmas Eve
25	Joseph Brodsky	Russian/American	December 24, 1971
26	Liz Lochhead	Scottish	The Choosing
29	Rainer Maria Rilke	German	Lady at a Mirror To Lou Andreas-Salome
30	Paul Muldoon Rilke/Muldoon	N Irish German/N Irish	Longbones The Unicorn
31	Thomas Hardy	English	At Castle Boterel New Year’s Eve

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December 08

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