POETRY

Poetry is an orphan of silence. The words never quite equal the experience behind them (by the American poet, Charles Simic)

Vachel Lindsay was born in 1879 in Springfield, Illinois and he died in 1931. His father was a Scottish country doctor. His mother's family was from Maryland and Virginia. They wanted Lindsay to become a doctor. When he began to write poetry, he wandered for several summers throughout the country reciting his poems in return for food and shelter.

John Agard was born on 21 June 1949 in British Guiana (now Guyana). He moved to England in 1977. He lives in south-east England. He is a poet and children's writer. He was selected for the Queen Medal for Poetry, in 2012.

Clockwise by John Agard (click here to listen and read)