During the Olympic and Paralympic games our Poetry Champions groups around the country were reading the Winning Words anthology which was published by Faber especially for the occasion.
The volume covered topics from falling in love to overcoming adversity, celebrating a newborn or learning to live with dignity. It promised to inspire and to thrill through life’s most magical moments and to help you to see the miraculous in the commonplace. But what did our Poetry Champions think?
Winchester Poetry Readers Group
Stephen Boyce
Overall I confess to being disappointed by the Winning Words anthology. It’s not just that the collection contains so many familiar, much anthologised poems, but that it strikes me as a missed opportunity to embrace the truly international spirit that is at the heart of the Olympic movement. Where are the poems from Africa, South America or the Indian sub-continent? A bit more than a mere nod in this direction would seem de rigueur in a book “inspired by the arrival of the Olympic games in London in 2012.”
Having said that – and whether or not these poems all “resonate with Olympic values” – there are, as in any good anthology, new discoveries and interesting correspondences and juxtapositions. So, for instance, I enjoyed finding Derek Walcott’s Earth a thumb’s flick from Patrick Kavanagh’s Inniskeen Road: July Evening; discovering Michael Donaghy’s beautifully wrought The Present and exquisitely apt Machines, and Derek Mahon’s Everything is Going to Be All Right – a poignant reminder of his importance among the great Northern Ireland poets. Among sporting metaphors The Catch by Simon Armitage is deceptively simple and every bit as inspirational as more familiar or rousing verses.
Angela Hicken
The Winchester group have been reading their way through the Winning Words anthology and our first point of discussion was how we navigated the poems; from start to finish, or by dipping and diving? Do you read anthologies in the order they have been arranged? Some felt that yes, they liked to see if there’s a story in how the poems are grouped or understand the way they’ve been purposely ordered. Others dipped, some finding a more systematic approach further down the line. These readers said they approached short story collections in the same way. Are you a poetry diver?
Madelaine Smith
I am a dipper and diver when reading a poetry anthology and this was how I approached Winning Words (it seemed particularly apposite considering the cover treatment given to this book). Flicking through initially I admit to reading those poems familiar to me before swimming out a bit further into unknown waters. Eventually I went back and re-read the collection in order. This highlighted for me that I had indeed missed some poems completely, but I still think I would approach another collection as a dipper.
My overall impression of the collection is that for a book called Winning Words, which are said to spur us on to Olympian goals, there are a lot of poems about death, over which of course none of us can ever be triumphant. Sean O’Brien’s Dignified sums up the reason for this: ‘Those who win take liberties with time…deny what all the gods insist on, that we die.’ One poem in particular hit me – perhaps physically, certainly emotionally. I even broke the habit of a lifetime and turned down the corner of the page so that I could return easily to this poem to read it again and again. Envying Owen Beattie is about the discovery of the frozen crew members of Franklin’s doomed 1845 Northwest Passage expedition. There is nothing triumphant in the poem at all. In the tragic story that inspired the poem no-one wins. The poem however is perfectly formed and is triumphant in its simplicity and beauty. I will be searching out more of the Sheenagh Pugh’s work, and that is after all what a poetry anthology is for; to give a reader a taste of the work of different poets so that they can go on to explore and discover more. Winning Words indeed!
Hugh Greasley
Winning Words is a very accessible book. In anthology terms it is like an island with plenty of well-lit runways on which to land and start exploring. Friends cautiously examined the book and could always find a favourite poem – which was shared. One dark night in a large tipee on the banks of a flooded river, the group was in suitably boy scout mode, to enjoy a rendition of If by Rudyard Kipling. After a hard days canoeing and an incident with a fallen tree, the lines “If you can keep your head, when all about you are loosing theirs and blaming it all on you” had resonance. The Tawny Owls called in the background and the tent flapped in the night breeze…. The Island has some interesting caves to explore and I liked those inhabited by Plath and Armitage. Next time as I head in a small boat towards slippery rock of an inaccessible anthology I will think fondly of the runways….
Not Scary Poetry Group
Sheila Brunt
This excellent volume has introduced me to exciting new works in addition to the Classics by Shakespeare, Tennyson, Keats etc. that we all studied at school. Even poems written a century ago are appropriate today, such as Rudyard Kipling’s If and Brooke’s The Soldier.
However, for me Clare Pollard’s Thinking of England is a bit depressing; it neither rhymes nor has a discernible metre. Compare this ‘poem’ to Shakespeare’s Once more into the breach, dear friends with it’s stirring battle-cry for the future of England. No, it doesn’t rhyme either, but the iambic pentameter gives a meaningful boost!
Very memorable is George Eliot’s Count that day Lost, a message for us all! Also I did enjoy the dry wit of U.A. Fanthorpe’s Atlas, even though there’s no rhyme scheme.
Dylan Thomas gives us a rather melancholy but stirring Villanelle Do not go gentle into that good night and following that line of thought, Mary E. Frye bids her farewell in Do not stand at my grave and weep which is not at all sad, in fact I found it very moving.
Karen Winyard
Winning Words has not won me over as an anthology of Inspiring Poems. I don’t think it ‘does what it says on the tin’ as few of the poems really fall into the category ‘inspirational’. I’m also with Stephen Boyce both on the absence of poems from many of the Olympic nations and also the inclusion of too many obvious choices such as Kipling’s If and Brooke’s The Soldier. Those poems may be wonderful, but surely we’ve seen them too often in this context.
And yet, I have enjoyed exploring the anthology, which is full of poems that are, if not inspiring, definitely significant and thought provoking. I approach anthologies every which way, coming at them from all angles. I start at the beginning and read through quickly, then take to dipping and diving and my favourite trick of skimming the index of first lines and picking any that surprise me.
The best surprise I’ve had from Winning Words is its concurrence with life. I have been struck by the sense of serendipity surrounding this collection. No sooner had I finished reading Maya Angelou’s Still I Rise than I heard Doreen Lawrence talking about the significance of Still I Rise for her. Michael Donaghy’s The Present came close on the heels of thinking about star themed poems for Not Scary’s National Poetry Day event. The extract from Little Gidding coincided with Not Scary’s trip to St. John’s church at Little Gidding perfectly.
I love the anthology experience of finding old, often half forgotten favourites and discovering new friends; and the way the poetry can interact within the selection so that the context can display a well known work in an entirely new light. For me this happened here with Sassoon’s Everyone Sang and Heaney’s The Peninsula. It’s been a joy discovering John Burnside’s History, Douglas Dunn’s Modern Love and many more, too many to list them all here. So in the end, Winning Words did win me over, as this is an anthology that makes you feel connected, and it will echo places and people when you least expect it to.
Grays Friday Poetry Group
When we meet as a group we usually share two short stories and two poems that tie into a theme. The poems allow us to safely explore both our feelings and thoughts together. Poems often encourage but can also confuse! The main point is that as a group (rather than as individuals) we explore words and ideas and we don’t rely on any knowledge we have – everyone’s response is valid and accepted (and this can cause some interesting discussions). The poems are read “alive” at the time and by different members of the group so we get different perspectives.
We often dip into Winning Words and read out some of our favourite poems (ones often remembered from childhood) as well as ponder on those less familiar. The poems have caused us puzzlement as well as laughter. Winning Words is a treasure beyond words – timeless, inspiring words that we dip into and discover countless treasures time after time.
Other comments
Sheelagh Gallagher
I have to agree with Stephen Boyce’s comment that Winning Words could and should have represented the countries who competed if it was to be truly Olympic but I must also say that I was not at all disappointed by the presentation and content of the book. I’ve got loads of anthologies and what I always enjoy is the juxtaposition of old and new and the way an old poem can suddenly seem new in a new setting. I’m normally a dipper but this time I really did start at the beginning and find myself at the middle. Maybe because the book is light and accessible it was easy to get carried away. I’m back to dipping now and still enjoying it. New finds? Roethke’s The Waking which I can’t believe I haven’t seen before and Ann Sansom’s Voice which made me smile.
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Poetry Champions will be adding their reviews of Winning Words here when they’ve finished reading and discussing the anthology. Have you read Winning Words? What did you think? Do you agree with our Poetry Champions? Have you read any inspiring poems recently? Please share them using the comments feature below.
