Carol Ann Duffy – the poet laureate

Carol Ann Duffy is one of the poets who is able to express the kind of thoughts that are somehow  hidden inside me and that I am unable to vocalise.  She knows my words, understands my world.  It’s gratifying that she has now become the poet laureate.  In the Guardian Review today she writes about this appointment and what it means to her, generously including all others who belong to ‘the honourable tribe of poets’ . 

     I feel a mixture of humility and delight in becoming the new poet laureate.  The humility comes from my awareness of the great talent of my peers, but the dleight comes from accepting this honour as the first woman to do so.

And she notes that this is truly a historic day for women and for poets in Britain, as she is the first woman to hold this position, the first in 341 years, the first since Charles II appointed Joohn Druden as the first poet laureate.

I have her collection Rapture which I  very much want to recommend.  The poems are direct, you can read them without agonising about what they mean, they talk about all aspects of love including passion as well as resentment, and all the other emotions that are part of being human and relating to others.

Congratulations to Duffy, it is really nice that a paper like the Guardian not only devotes part of its Culture section but also the third page of its main news section of the paper to this appointment, bringing poetry to the front on a day and in a week when politics, health, social service and other aspects of life seem to draw our attention to the worst in present day living.  Yes, let’s have some more poetry!

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