Anthologist Fiona Waters has put together collections of poetry focusing on nature, animals and war. Here are her five favourite female poets.
1. Carol Ann Duffy’s poetry is always full of compassion, humanity and sensitivity. I love the poem World, which describes a pair across the world from each other and it focuses on the fact that when one is getting up, the other is going to bed.
2. Jackie Kay talks here of the memories we all have of special food that we ate as children and in the poem Grandpa’s Soup she tells how no one makes soup like her grandpa. It is the best in the world and she knows she will love it all her life and remember it even when her grandpa is no more.
3. Imtiaz Dharker was born in Lahore but grew up in Glasgow and her wonderful, atmospheric poem Prayer describes the scene outside the mosque where the hundreds of worshippers have all left their sandals piled up outside. She says they lie tumbled like prayers against the walls of God.
4. Gillian Clarke was the National Poet of Wales from 2008 to 2016. Her beautiful musical poem Gannet recalls my own memories of seeing this wonderful bird diving. Her concise yet powerful poem describes how the bird hovers in the air and then plummets to the water to scoop up a fish.
5. Helen Dunmore’s poetry always has a certain dreamy quality which I love, and in Hare in the Snow she describes how the hare dashes across the snow and then stands completely still, looking like a shadow.
