Suggestions for Wider Reading in Poetry

You could check out The Poem Hunter if you want to read some poetry on line or if you want to sample some of the poems listed below.: www.poemhunter.com You Tube is also a good place to look for poets performing their work or interviews with contemporary poets The poems below are all AQA suggestions for wider reading. As you read and make notes on your poems, you might try to catalogue them under the particular Struggle for Identity revealed. There are 5 main areas of struggle:
Class Ethnic/cultural Religious Sexual/gender Political

The Poetry of Suffering: The Self:

Simon Armitage Give from The Dead Sea poems

The Social:
WH Auden Refugee Blues, O What is that Sound, Here War is Simple Like a Monument, Musee des Beaux Arts

The Poetry of Resistance: The Self:

Collection of Black British Poets edited by Lemm Sissay. See Hell is Round the Corner taken from Fire People Written by Tricky a Bristol born rapper. See him perform it live below: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87wbQKYN4TM&feature=related) Lemn Sissay (http://www.lemnsissay.com/writing-2/pttt/)

The poetry of Langston Hughes

The Social:
Adrienne Rich - The School Among the Ruins, Benjamin Zephaniah Too Black Too Strong Check out the BBC site which has lots of articles, videos on contemporary poetry: http://www.bbc.co.uk/poetryseason/poets/benjamin_zephaniah.shtml The poetry of Bobby Sands from Skylark Sing Your Lonely Song Tony Harrison A Cold Coming: Gulf War Poems

The Poetry of renewal and Self Determination: The self:

W.H Auden Funeral Blues, O Tell me the Truth about Love, Lullabye, The More Loving One, As I Walked Out One Evening, Lay Your Sleeping Head My Love Douglas Dunn Reincarnations from Elegies

The Social:
Grace Nichols Afterword, Beauty, The Assertion, Invitation, Holding My beads Alice Walker The Nature of This Flower is to Bloom, From Revolutionary Petunias and Other Poems. Liz Lockhead Fetch on the First of January from the collection Dreaming Frankenstein Labi Siffre The Gift from The Fire People A Collection of Contemporary Black British Poets Jackie Kay I Can See Richt Thru My Mither from Life Mask Tom Leonard this is the Six o clock News from Intimate Exchanges Simon Armitage On an Owd Piktcha from The Dead Sea Poems Benjamin Zephaniah I Neva Shot de Sherrif from Too Black Too Strong