'Fable of Flesh' by Hadara Bar-Nadav. AGNI Online, August 2006.

'Not Yet My Mother' by Owen Sheers. The Guardian, 24 June 2006.

'A Rose Tree' by Fleur Adcock. The Guardian, 17 June 2006.

Rilke's 'The Song of the Sea'. (First Science Poem of the Week).

'The Peace of Wild Things' by Wendell Berry. Poetry Foundation (pdf).

'Drowsing over The Arabian Nights' by John Kinsella on Poets.org

'Atlantis: a Lost Sonnet' by Eavan Boland. The New Republic, 8 March 2006.

'Heart, My Box of Snow' by Rebecca Hoogs. Poetry, May 2006.

'Thou Shalt Want Want Want' by Jen Hadfield. Poetry International, 1 May 2006.

The 2006 edition of Poems on the Underground is launched today. Transport for London offers a random poem for the day and an online archive.

"The second Holyrood Poetry Link scheme aims to celebrate the vibrancy of contemporary Scottish poetry, whilst providing an opportunity for Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) to demonstrate their support for the arts.

Poets and MSPs met to explore issues of mutual interest and agree a theme or themes on which the poet would write." (Introduction to the project). The poems are on the Scottish Poetry Library website.

Thanks to L. for finding out about this brilliant concert of music that Benjamin Britten and Walter Leigh composed while they worked for the GPO Film Unit. The highlight of the evening was obviously the full showing of Night Mail with the text of Auden's poem. We had a fantastic evening.

Times review of the evening

Born Magazine is an extraordinarily beautiful online journal that presents joint projects by writers and artists. I can't get enough of it! My favourite poem in the Winter 2005 issue is 'How They Sleep' by Farah Marklevits (poet) and Rob Corradi (artist). It really captures the feeling of being intimate enough with someone to sleep with them, but not intimate enough to share your dreams with them. I also love the way that the graphics are clear and crisp and modern, while the poem deals with a theme as old as time.

Tonight we're off to the Next Generation Poets Reading at the Bloomsbury Theatre. After all the media controversy, I'm really looking forward to it. The Poetry Book Society, who have organised the reading, have a reader's guide (pdf) as well as details of the original Next Generation Poets from 1994.

According to Coke's website, "The Coca-Cola Company began its Christmas advertising in the 1920s with shopping-related print ads in magazines like the Saturday Evening Post. The first Santa ads used a strict-looking Claus, in the vein of Thomas Nast ... In 1931, The Coca-Cola Company commissioned Michigan-born illustrator Haddon Sundblom to develop advertising images using Santa Claus. For inspiration, Sundblom turned to Clement Clark Moore's 1822 poem "A Visit From St. Nicholas." Moore's description of the man as "chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf" led to an image of Santa that was warm, friendly and human. For the next 35 years, Sundblom painted portraits of Santa that helped to create the modern image of Santa." (More on Coca-Cola's Heritage pages).

Coca-Cola and Christmas (An article with Sundblom Santa images at the bottom)

The Coke Santas by and in the style of Haddon Sundblom (Scroll down for a montage of Sundblom Santas)

A Visit from St. Nicholas by Clement Clarke Moore on Oldpoetry.com

'That the Science of Cartography Is Limited' by Eavan Boland from In a Time of Violence. Carcanet, 1994.

Apart from his children's poems, Eugene Field wrote poems about his books and book collecting, many of which are very amusing. His final work, written in the last year of his short life, was The Love Affairs of A Bibliomaniac. These are available in their entirity online. My favourite, without doubt, is 'On the Odors Which My Books Exhale,' which includes a retelling of the poisonous atmosphere of the British Library Reading Room.

The Bibliomaniac's Prayer

Keep me, I pray, in wisdom's way
That I may truths eternal seek;
I need protecting care to-day, --
My purse is light, my flesh is weak.
So banish from my erring heart
All baleful appetites and hints
Of Satan's fascinating art,
Of first editions, and of prints.
Direct me in some goodly walk
Which leads away from bookish strife,
That I with pious deed and talk
May extra-illustrate my life.

But if, O Lord, it pleaseth Thee
To keep me in temptation's way,
I humbly ask that I may be
Most notably beset to-day;
Let my temptation be a book,
Which I shall purchase, hold, and keep,
Whereon when other men shall look,
They'll wail to know I got it cheap.
Oh, let it such a volume be
As in rare copperplate abounds,
Large paper, clean, and fair to see,
Uncut, unique, unknown to Lowndes

Dutch Boy Paint Chip Poems