‘I could hear in his voice the wry humour and occasional melancholy’

Edwin Morgan’s playful yet thoughtful poetry soars when performed, writes Michael Rosen

It was great to discover Edwin Morgan’s poems in the 1970s. I’m sure he had discovered himself for a good few years before that, but coming from London and not having seen him perform, I can remember my delight at seeing such playful yet thoughtful poetry. At the time I was working with a teacher from Nottingham in producing an anthology based on the spoken word. Our guiding idea was to find poems that had the tenor of the spoken voice, a kind of “oral poetry on the page” we called it, based on WH Auden’s expression, “memorable speech.” When we came across Edwin’s poems we knew we had found something that was just right for the job. We performed them to each other, savouring the words, the subtle changes in rhythm and mood. Yes, these would be ideal for children and school students to share, perform, adapt, and make up their own – part of the flow of poetry we were trying to engender.

Since that time, I have heard Edwin on the radio and come across his poems elsewhere. Sadly, I didn’t ever see him perform his poems live, but I could hear in his voice on the air, and in lifting the poems off the page myself, the wry humour, gentle moods and occasional melancholy. It’s not easy to sustain poetry by poets who are no longer around to stomp the long miles away from home, perform in unfamiliar rooms and get back home late at night. We have to keep thinking and rethinking of new ways to put their poems in view. ■