“Analogy” – a poem by Brian Higgins, read by Michael Blackburn

Brian Higgins (1930 – 1965) is now forgotten as a poet but published three collections of poetry during his lifetime. This poem, “Analogy” comes from his second, Notes While Travelling (Longmans, London, 1964).

His first collection, The Only Need, was published by Abeland-Schuman (New York – London – Toronto) in 1960, and the final one (posthumously), The Northern Fiddler, by Methuen (London) in 1966. His death was ascribed to a ”rare heart condition”.

More on Higgins available on Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Higgins_(poet)

The portrait of Higgins is by Patrick Swift and is used courtesy of Wikipedia.

“Nostalgia” (aka “The Iron Music”) by Ford Madox Ford, read by Michael Blackburn

Ford Madox Ford, 1873 – 1939.

Best known as the author of such novels as The Good Soldier and No More Parades, Ford was also an accomplished modernist poet. He enlisted with the Welch Regiment in 1915 at the age of 41, served at the front and was wounded. “Nostalgia” (with the alternative title, “The Iron Music”) is one of a number of poems that take their rise from his experiences of the Great War.

Image of Ford c/o The Ford Madox Ford Society (http://www.fordmadoxfordsociety.org).

The text is taken from Ford Madox Ford: Selected Poems, edited with an introduction by Max Saunders, published by Carcanet Press, 2003.

Listen to the poets – for my MA Creative Writing students

Following our discussion of Robert Creeley’s poem, “I Know a Man”, you may be interested in listening to the poet reading the poem at different times in his life. These recordings can be found at PennSound, which is a living archive of modern and contemporary poets: http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/authors.php

You can also listen to William Carlos Williams reading “The Red Wheelbarrow” on the same site.