More Riches

I always find something to enjoy in Carol Rumens's choices for her Poem of the Week feature, but the last two poems have been outstanding. This week's I guess it was my destiny to live so long by June Jordan proved deeply moving and strangely refreshing - if that's the right word - for a poem focusing on the terminal illness of its writer. Except that's somehow not the focus. And the narrative of The Maid's Tale by the nonagenarian M.R. Peacocke was compelling, intriguing, rewarding and, for this reader, a tad unsettling, all at once.

Indeed Ms Peacocke's Tale caused much comment below the line simply in terms of how it was meant to be interpreted, and this actually spilled over into the commentary on this week's poem. In fact, the general excellence of the comments sections that accompanied the poems greatly added to my appreciation of both of them. I suppose though, looking at it from another point of view, we must thank the poems themselves for provoking such rich responses.