I form relationships with poets and their poems in the same way that I do with music. The Blue Nile's 'A Walk Across the Rooftops' accompanied the editing of 'The Essential Guide to Flight' to such an extent I nearly stole the album title for my collection, and whenever I hear a track from the album I'm instantly transported back to that time. Likewise, I carried Carol Ann Duffy's 'The World's Wife' in my handbag one fine summer, and whenever I read any of the poems I can feel the sun again. And I feel like the poems are mine, somehow.
I have just stumbled across a new poet (well, new to me) who I feel an instant reader-kinship with: Dorothea Grossman. There I was, surfing when I should have been working, and I came across a handful of her poems on the Poetry Magazine site. So perfectly formed and so uniquely hers, they made me see again. You know, the way some poetry can just open your eyes to the world around you, and make you see as if you're a child discovering everything for the first time...
Here are the links to some of her poetry, an interview with the poet, and samples from a CD she recorded, entitled 'Call and Response'.
4 poems and 4 photos
In It for the Kicks - an interview with Dorothea Grossman
Call and Response CD