Tell Me the Truth About Life: A National Poetry Day Anthology
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By National Poetry Day, and and, Cerys Matthews
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CELEBRATING THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY, THE OFFICIAL NATIONAL POETRY DAY COLLECTION.
CURATED AND INTRODUCED BY CERYS MATTHEWS. Tell Me the Truth About Life is an indispensable anthology which celebrates poetry’s power to tap into the truths that matter.
Curated and introduced by Cerys Matthews, this collection draws on the wisdom of crowds: featuring poems nominated for their insight into truth by a range of ordinary and extraordinary people: from Britain’s first astronaut, Helen Sharman, to the driver of the number 19 bus, from sporting heroes and world-famous musicians to teachers, artists and politicians. Their choices include contemporary work by Yrsa Daley-Ward, Warsan Shire and Kei Miller alongside classics by W H Auden, Emily Dickinson and Dylan Thomas.
Here you will find poems to revive the spirit, ballads to mobilize and life-lines to hold you safe in the dark. Compiled for National Poetry Day’s twenty-fifth anniversary, Tell Me the Truth About Life is a book that reminds us we are never completely alone in our search to glimpse the truth. Containing nominations from a number of high-profile poetry lovers and poets, including Rupi Kaur, Michael Morpurgo, Mark Gatiss, Alice Oswald and Helen Sharman, among others.
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Review by Helen S - Duloch Library Tuesday Reading Group
The theme for the anthology was 'Truth'. The collection includes many long-time favourites as well as introducing me to many modern poets with themes of a contemporary nature.
The poems are easily accessible under themed chapters and I found it fun to just 'dip in'.
I particularly enjoyed Chapter 5, 'The Peace of Wild Things': Nature's Solace, finding my favourite poem on page 101 by Wendell Berry.
I feel the poem entitled 'Poetry' by Elanor Farjeon sums up my feelings about poetry in general.
What is Poetry? Who knows?
Not a rose, but the scent of the rose;
Not the sky, but the light in the sky;
Not the fly, but the gleam of the fly;
Not the sea, but the sound of the sea;
Not myself, but what makes me
See, hear, and feel something that prose
Cannot: and what it is, who knows.
Tell me the Truth about Life curated by Cerys Matthews
1) reviewed by Kathy Livingstone
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ If you buy or read only one poetry book for National Poetry Day, I would recommend this. The introduction by Cerys Matthews is fascinating in itself: not only does it explain the genesis of the anthology but Ms Matthews explains this in a wonderfully poetic, personal and heartfelt way.
I was intrigued by the choice of opening poet and poem, but, when I reflected on the reaction the poem created within me, I felt it was an inspired move. Absolute, indisputable truths of simple, even banal subjects which surely speak to all, so humorously penned: I became an immediate fan of Piet Hein and ‘grooks’! And so I excitedly embarked on the rest of the journey about to unfold in these pages.
Whilst some poems touched my heart and moved me less than others, there were very few which left me cold and indifferent.
I think the selection and arrangement into the seven different sections works very well. If I had to chose a favourite from each section, they might be as follows:
7) If we could speak like wolves
6) Good Bones
5) Stars over the Dordogne
4) Still I rise and A Man’s A Man for ‘A That (both such enduring personal favourites)
3) Oh Who is that Young Sinner
2) The Art of Deception (that final line!) or At the Intersection (so clever)
1) Desiderata - I really don’t remember having read/heard this at any time in my life but I feel I must have because it resonates so deeply within me and (albeit unwittingly) has in fact guided my life. My personal Mantra! ( Hence the reverse order here.)
During my reading of this anthology, I remembered that, in my childhood, poetry books were almost always called A Treasury of ...
It feels like only now, and quite by happenstance, reading this collection has led me to understand the significance of that title. Treasury and Treasure all in one. It’s a keeper for me and I think, as the years roll on, I shall experience moments of absolute me-time, diving into its contents, to pause and reflect upon the truth about life.
