Perhaps surprisingly Birtles has found his poetic leanings can often be a positive factor where the day job is concerned: “When pitching for the distribution business of one of our clients, the Singapore Turf Club, I was asked ‘How do we know you really like racing?’ I believe when I rather ruefully revealed my alter ego ‘The Racing Poet’, they needed no further convincing!” Letter from the End of the Twentieth Century, Joy Harjo and Poetic Justice, Mekko Productions, 2002. It was also the cover of Horses that established Smith’s memorable style. “I think it was the way it presented women,” says Williams. “It was a new way of looking, a new way of seeing that people didn’t know how to express until then. It opened a door for people who were looking for a door, though they didn’t know what it looked like they knew they would recognise it when they saw it.” In the next few lines, the tranced mind of the poet cajoled his legs in a manner that he stumbled. It seems like something deep inside his heart couldn’t let him go. At last, the poet descended from the bosom of the “kindling tops” and came to the horses for a closer view.

Browse through our collection of poems at 1Love Poems for your next writing inspirations and ideas, and have your readers talking about the themes that you love. The Horses’ by Ted Hughes depicts the sunrise and breaks all the natural silence. According to the poet’s imagination, the sun like the lava erupted from the volcanic mountain of clouds. After the sunrise grey, the color of sadness, hopelessness, and passivity, fades away and appears the blue of life, longevity, and spontaneity. The poet could clearly see the sky and humorously the “hanging” planet in the sky like fruits. Two days later I stood at the Best Mate statue and there started a Gold Cup day tradition, which continues today.” The Horses’ by Ted Hughes is a free verse poem. The lines of the poem are divided into several couplets but the lines in the couplet don’t rhyme. The flow of the poem sustains by the use of repetitions and internal rhythm. The contraction and elongation of the lines reflect the movements and shifting of scenes. However, the poet employs both the iambic meter and the trochaic meter in the poem. There are also a few variations in the poem. As an example, in the first line, “dawn dark” contains two stressed syllables. This foot forms a spondee.There is something about the relationship between man and horse that has gone on for so long and although we don’t rely on them like we used to, they are still such a part of us.” It is this love for the horses themselves that enables Birtles’ poems to transcend sporting barriers and strike a chord with any lover of animals. For a Girl Becoming (children’s fiction), illustrated by Mercedes McDonald, University of Arizona Press, 2009. When Racing gets you, it gets to your very core and you want to share that with people and without forcing it, you want them to feel what you feel. I don’t write my poems with the intention of converting people. I very rarely plan them, but if they do appeal and I continue to get a good crowd to listen to the somewhat eccentric bloke blasting out rhyme, then great.” When the poet passed them, “not one snorted or jerked its head”. They were like “grey silent fragments” of nature’s calmest song. The poet was amazed by their stillness and the horses appeared to the poet belonging to another world that is “grey” and “silent”. In the following lines, the poet first introduces sound in this poem and it was of the “curlew’s”. From the first sound, the poem takes an interesting turn in the next section.

Horses and Men in the Rain by Carl Sandburg – In this poem, Carl Sandburg talks about horses and their resemblance to men. A lesser-known poem than some on this list, ‘Why Some Girls Love Horses’speaks on themes of childhood and coming of age. The poem also delves into relationships between children and animals. It expresses a speaker’s admiration for a horse that was “smarter than most of the children” the child when to school with. The speaker ages as the poem progress and they learn to love the horse for its own freedom and how it is a slave to no one. A stubborn horse walks behind you, an impatient horse walks in front of you, but a noble companion walks beside you.” – Unknown Bruchac, Joseph, editor, Survival This Way: Interviews with American Indian Poets, University of Arizona Press (Tucson, AZ), 1987. With it a man, a woman, a pony with whiteybrown hairs. — The man foots in front of the horse with a shambling swayThere are some things better left unsaid… but you can bet a cowgirl will say them anyway!” – Unknown Bryan, Sharon, ed., Where We Stand: Women Poets on Literary Tradition, Norton (New York, NY), 1993. I heard a neigh. Oh, such a brisk and melodious neigh it was. My very heart leapt with the sound.” – Nathaniel Hawthorne Before I loved horses, I had nothing to live for. Now I love horses and can’t stop seeing things to live for.” – Unknown Library Journal, October 15, 1994, p. 72; November 15, 1994, p. 70; June 1, 1997, p. 100; June 15, 2002, p. 70.

Secrets from the Center of the World, photographs by Steven Strom, University of Arizona Press (Tucson, AZ), 1989. We will never have to tell our horse that we are sad, happy, confident, angry, or relaxed. He already knows – long before we do.” – Marjike de Jong No matter how big or small you are, your horse is always there for you when you need your spirit lifted.” – Unknown When the Almighty put hoofs on the wind and a bridle on the lightning, He called it a horse.” – UnknownThe voice is that of a first person speaker, the poet, using the pronoun “I”. The tone is initially philosophical, but the impact of the natural world on the speaker— overpowering and deeply affecting — is Wordsworthian. When I bestride him, I soar, I am a hawk: he trots the air; the earth sings when he touches it; the basest horn of his hoof is more musical than the pipe of Hermes.” – William Shakespeare Consistently praised for the depth and thematic concerns in her writings, Harjo has emerged as a major figure in contemporary American poetry. While Harjo’s work is often set in the Southwest, emphasizes the plight of the individual, and reflects Creek values, myths, and beliefs, her oeuvre has universal relevance. Bellm asserted: “Harjo’s work draws from the river of Native tradition, but it also swims freely in the currents of Anglo-American verse—feminist poetry of personal/political resistance, deep-image poetry of the unconscious, ‘new-narrative’ explorations of story and rhythm in prose-poem form.” According to Field, “To read the poetry of Joy Harjo is to hear the voice of the earth, to see the landscape of time and timelessness, and, most important, to get a glimpse of people who struggle to understand, to know themselves, and to survive.” PAL: Perspectives in American Literature—A Research and Reference Guide, http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap10/harjo.html/ (March 10, 2004).