Poetry blog

We keep you updated on the world of poetry with our news roundups.

Recent posts

Johann Ludwig Uhland Poems

 

Johann Ludwig Uhland was a German poet, historian and lawyer.  He had a particular interest in philology and French and German medieval literature.  He also served the new German parliament during the early part of the 19th century. He was born on the 26th April 1787 in Tübingen, a town in the Duchy of Württemberg, now in present day south western Germany.  He had a keen interest ...

Jigar Moradabadi Poems

 

Jigar Moradabadi was the nom de plume used by an award winning Indian poet who is best known for his ghazal poetry written in the Urdu language.  This is a specialised form of poetry which consists of a refrain and rhyming couplets, with each line sharing the same meter. He was born Ali Sikandar on the 6th April 1890 in the Moradabad district of Uttar Pradesh.  ...

RIP to the Poet Who Refused to Live in the Shadows – Rudy Kikel passes away – Poetry News 12th July

 

News has reached us of the passing of Rudy Kikel, ages 75, at his home in Jamaica Plain. He won numerous awards and accolades, and as well as publishing five collections of his own and editing two others, he was also the editor of Bay Windows, a Boston based gay community newspaper. There are universal themes that all gay men and women will recognise ...

Poetry Essentials: 60 books that will make you fall in love with poetry all over again!

 

Some poems crave the outdoors – preferring to be read in the company of sunshine and picnic baskets. Others demand a cozy environment – bundled up in blankets as snow falls outside. Some poems keep us company through hard times, others give us respite when we feel overcrowded. Here at My Poetic Side, we believe that poetry is an essential part of life. And whether you’ve been reading poetry ...

Soviet Poet and Human Rights Activist Irina Ratushinskaya Passes Away – Poetry News 11th July

 

Born 4th March 1954, Ukrainian-born Ratushinskaya – Ukraine was then part of the Soviet Union – graduated from Odessa University in 1976 as a physicist. She was a school teacher, marrying a fellow physicist, and had a strong Christian faith. On the face of it, her upbringing and love of poetry did not make her the natural dissident. But Ratushinskaya was imprisoned for ...

AI Poetry/Obituary Poetry/Laureate to perform to Music – Poetry News Roundup – 10th July

 

Today's news roundup takes stories from Pennsylvania, Cambridge and King's Lynn. University of Cambridge Researcher Claims AI can write poetry Former Cambridge Researcher, Jack Hopkins, has developed a system using Artifical Intelligence to write poetry. The system, which has been ‘trained’ to write by being fed thousands of lines of previously written poetry, can adapt to write on specific themes, or within a specific ...

Jiri Mordechai Langer Poems

 

Jiří (also known as Georgo) Mordechai Langer was a Czech-born, Hebrew poet and essayist.  He also spent a number of years as a teacher and a journalist. He was born on the 19th March 1894 in Prague into an assimilated Jewish family.  He attended orthodox Czech schools but, even at a young age, he felt the pull of Judaism.  In his free time he ...

Poetry and Theatre/Live Poetry/Never Irrelevant – Poetry News Round Up 7th July

 

Today’s poetry round up offers us an insight into how poetry can bring people together, and how we can be surrounded by poems but not even know it. Poetry Inspires Theatre The Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s resident ensemble Universes, is currently performing a new musical, UniSon which is inspired by the poetry of August Wilson. The musical takes it inspiration from several the poets ...

Joachim du Bellay Poems

 

Joachim du Bellay was a 16th century French poet and literary critic.  He became well known as one of the principal French Renaissance poets who wrote collectively as La Pléiade.  Other prominent members included Jean-Antoine de Baïf and Pierre de Ronsard. He was born into an aristocratic family at the castle of La Turmelière, close to Angers in the north western region of the country.  There is ...

Henry Cuyler Bunner Poems

 

Henry Cuyler Bunner was a 19th century American poet, playwright, short story writer and novelist.  He spent the whole of his relatively short life in and around New York City and his verse and stories often provided vivid descriptions of the place that he lived and the people that he observed around him. He was born on the 3rd August 1855 in Oswego, a ...