Hear fifty of the greatest love poems from the last 50 years. More information.
Actors and poets from across the globe come together for a celebratory reading.
What does love give us? It gives us hope; courage; defiance. Through these poems we look at the world as it is now, through human qualities that counteract hate: love, empathy, humanity.
Part of Poetry International
Hear fifty of the greatest international love poems from the last 50 years.
A star cast of actors and poets from across the globe come together for a celebratory reading.
What does love give us? It gives us hope; courage; defiance. Through these poems we look at the world as it is now, through human qualities that counteract hate: love, empathy, humanity.
Prologue
Langston Hughes (US) The Dream Keeper
Fifty poems
Michael Donaghy (US) The Present
Naomi Shibab Nye (Palestine-US) Shoulders
Philippe Jaccottet (France) Distances
Tadeus Rozewicz (Poland) A Sketch for a Modern Love
Billy Collins (US) Night Club
Nazim Hikmett (Turkey) Things I didn’t know I loved
Margaret Atwood (Canada) Variations on the Word Love
Mutsuo Takahashi (Japan) Dove
Anna Swir (Poland) Thank-you, My Fate
Lawrence Bradby (UK) If Your Faith in Me Should Fail
Mary Oliver (USA) Wild Geese
Anat Zecharaya (Israel) A Woman of Valour
Karlis Verdins(Latvia) Come to Me
Doina Ioanid (Romania) The Yellow Dog
Ana Ristovic (Serbia) Circling Zero
Katharine Kilalea (South Africa) You were a bird
Ted Hughes (UK) Lovesong
Kim Addonizio (USA) You Don’t Know What Love Is
Kim Hyesoon (Korea) A Hole
Choman Hardi (Iraqi Kurdistan) Summer Roof
Carolyn Kizer (USA) Bitch
Nina Cassian (Romania) Lady of Miracles
R. M. Vaughan (Canadian) 10 Reasons Why I Fall in Love with Inaccessible Straight Boys Every Damn Time
Asjan Al Hendi (Saudi Arabia) In search of the Other
Edwin Morgan (Scotland) Strawberries
Chinua Achebe (Nigeria) Love Song (for Anna)
Muriel Rukeyser (USA) Looking at Each Other
Linton Kewsi Johnson (UK/Jamaica) Hurricane Blues
Tracy K Smith (US) Duende
Warsan Shire (UK) For women who are difficult to love
Frank O’Hara (USA) Having a Coke With You
Adrian Mitchell (UK) Celia Celia
Jackie Kay (Scotland) Her
Maya Angelou (USA) Come. And Be My Baby
Kutti Revathi (India) Breasts
Sujata Bhatt (India) Love in a Bathtub
Annabelle Despard (Norway) Should You Die First
Alice Oswald (UK) Wedding
Valzhyna Mort (Belarus) Love
Nikola Madzirov (Macedonia) When Someone Goes Away Everything That’s Been Done Comes Back
Iman Mersal (Eygpt) Love
Sinead Morrissey (Ireland) Forgive Us Our Trespasses
Kei Miller (Jamaica) Epilogue
Faid Ahmwed Faiz (Pakistan) Before You Came
WS Merwin (USA) In Time
Arundathi Subramaniam (India) Prayer
Yves Bonnefoy (France) A stone
Ko Un (South Korea) Snowfall
Amjad Nasser (Jordan) A Song and Three Questions
Vikram Seth (India) All You who Sleep Tonight
