The Friday Poem

A poem every Friday

Features

Composite image showing a dollar sign, a sixpenny piece, a bitcoin sign, a mackerel head and a figure with blue hair.

Sing a Song of Sixpence

Poet and financial journalist Emma Simon picks six poems about money
Castaway Companions

Castaway Companions

Vanessa Lampert chooses poems by Matthew Dickman, Dorianne Laux and Karen Solie for her desert island
A collage showing a robin, some soldiers playing football, a Christmas tree, a goose, a running policeman, a pudding and curiously a copy of 'The Joy of Sex'

Poetry Humbug: five poems to ruin Christmas

Tim Atkins selects five Christmas poems – "gifts that really should never have been given"
A poem laid out a page in the shape of a bird. It looks old.

Poems of peace and war

We unpack three of Guillaume Apollinaire's 'calligrammes'
Photograph showing a streets in Leeds city center. They are empty apart from one figure in the middle of the street

There is a happy land

Ian Harker looks at the poetry scene in Leeds
Bookshelf photograph showing various titles and...inexplicably a glass of water. Water? Absinthe maybe...but water?

The toad, the child, the sapling

Richard Meier treats us to a tour of his poetry bookshelf
Saint George and the Dragon, a painting by Paolo Uccello. . It shows a scene from the famous story of Saint George and the Dragon. On the right, George is spearing the beast, and on the left, the princess is using her belt as a leash to take the dragon up to the town. The eye in the storm gathering on the right of Saint George is lined up with his spear showing there has been divine intervention. The painting is commonly interpreted as an illustration of the legend of St. George as recounted in the Golden Legend. However, Stanford professor Emanuele Lugli has suggested an alternative reading: that the work functions as propaganda, encouraging Florentine elites to adopt agriculture. In medieval symbolism, the dragon was a symbol of pollution, and St. George's slaying of the creature can be seen as a metaphorical reclamation of the land, leading to a pure water source located in a cave.

This barter of enthusiasm 9

Helen Evans, Rachel Burns and Oliver Comins choose poems by U. A. Fanthorpe, Bobby Parker and Tishani Doshi
Photo of Jackie Wills. She has long brown hair with flecks of grey, and red lipstick.

The cutty’s goistering

The Friday Poem talks to poet and gardener Jackie Wills
Image showing a medicine bottle and a prescription for Poemcetemol (see what they did there).

A salve to strengthen heart and happiness

We talk to Deb Alma, poet, teacher, editor, and founder of the Poetry Pharmacy
A composite image of three brightly coloured children's poetry book covers.

Danger leaps from off the page

Annie Fisher looks at some of the best new poetry collections for children
Part of the cover of the first edition of 'The Hunting of the Snark'. It shows a bearded fellow sitting halfway up a mast ringing a bell. It's a bit windy.

Nine tradesmen and a beaver

Edward Wakeling introduces 'The Hunting of the Snark' by Lewis Carroll
Castaway Companions

Castaway Companions

Castaway Poet Roy Marshall chooses poems by David Jones, Paul Batchelor and John Donne