Guardian Heads-Up

I said I was keeping an eye on the Guardian vis-a-vis women poets. Well, I've had an insider tip-off about this Saturday's edition! Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy has commissioned a group of poets to write on the theme of ageing. Poetry School co-ordinator in Manchester - Linda Chase - is one of the poets who will be contributing a poem. Linda is a skilled poet who writes fantastic poems, full of insight and compassion. I'm looking forward to reading the supplement in Saturday's paper.
Here's another poem for International Women's Week. Being of a certain age, I love this beautiful poem by inspirational African American poet Lucille Clifton, who died in February

to my last period
well girl, goodbye,
after thirty-eight years.
thirty-eight years and you
never arrived
splendid in your red dress
without trouble for me
somewhere, somehow.


now it is done,
and i feel just like
the grandmothers who,
after the hussy has gone,
sit holding her photograph
and sighing, wasn't she
beautiful? wasn't she beautiful?


from 'Being Alive- the sequel to Staying Alive' edited by Neil Astley, Bloodaxe