Essential Poems from the Staying Alive Trilogy

Neil Astley is editor of Bloodaxe Books, which he founded in 1978. His books include novels, poetry collections and anthologies, most notably those in Bloodaxe's Staying Alive anthology series: Staying Alive (2002), Being Alive (2004), Being Human (2011), and Staying Human (2020), a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation; and three collaborations with Pamela Robertson-Pearce, Soul Food: nourishing poems for starved minds (2008), and the DVD-books In Person: 30 Poets (2008) and In Person: World Poets (2017). He has published two novels, The End of My Tether (2002), which was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award, and The Sheep Who Changed the World (2005). He received an Eric Gregory Award for his poetry, was given a D.Litt from Newcastle University for his work with Bloodaxe Books, and in 2018 was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He also guest-edited a transatlantic all-poetry issue of the American literary journal Ploughshares, the first such issue in its 43-year history. He lives in the Tarset Valley of Northumberland, England.

'These poems distil the human heart as nothing else' - Jane Campion. 'Truly startling and powerful poems' - Mia Farrow. 'Staying Alive is a book which leaves those who have read or heard a poem from it feeling less alone and more alive' - John Berger. 'A magnificent anthology' - Philip Pullman. 'I love Staying Alive and keep going back to it. Being Alive is just as vivid - this new book feels even more alive - I think it has a heartbeat' - Meryl Streep.

• Neil Astley 8 Introduction Mary Oliver 11 Wild GeeseDoris Kareva 12 from Shape of TimeRumi 13 The Guest HouseFernando Pessoa 14 ‘To be great, be whole…’Denise Levertov 14 LivingEdip Cansever 15 TableRuth Stone 16 Second-Hand CoatWisława Szymborska 17 Could HaveRita Dove 18 Dawn RevisitedMiroslav Holub 19 The doorJane Kenyon 20 OtherwiseLangston Hughes 21 Harlem [2]Rainer Maria Rilke 22 Archaic Torso of ApolloMary Oliver 22 The JourneyJames Wright 24 Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, MinnesotaNina Cassian 25 TemptationBrendan Kennelly 26 BeginJulius Chingono 27 As I GoC.P. Cavafy 28 IthakaStanley Kunitz 29 The LayersRobert Frost 31 The Road Not TakenWilliam Stafford 32 The Way It IsToon Tellegen 32 I drew a lineRobert Frost 33 Stopping by Woods on a Snowy EveningMark Doty 34 MigratoryTomas Tranströmer 36 AloneCzesław Miłosz 38 EncounterElizabeth Bishop 38 At the FishhousesLouis MacNeice 41 SnowDerek Mahon 42 A Disused Shed in Co. WexfordJohn Burnside 44 UnwittinglyLars Gustafsson 45 The GirlKen Smith 46 Being the third song of UriasPhilip Levine 47 StarlightSeamus Heaney 48 from ClearancesAnne Stevenson 49 Poem for a DaughterKate Clanchy 50 LoveAnne Stevenson 51 The VictoryAnna T. Szabó 52 She Leaves MeThomas Lux 53 A Little ToothGalway Kinnell 54 After Making Love We Hear FootstepsAlden Nowlan 55 Great Things Have HappenedSharon Olds 56 This HourGjertrud Schnackenberg 57 Snow MeltingHelen Dunmore 58 Wild strawberriesEdwin Morgan 59 StrawberriesKim Addonizio 60 For DesireKim Addonizio 61 You Don’t Know What Love IsU.A. Fanthorpe 62 AtlasAlan Dugan 63 Love Song: I and ThouAlice Oswald 64 WeddingPhilip Larkin 64 An Arundel TombDerek Walcott 66 Love After LoveDennis O’Driscoll 67 Missing GodKerry Hardie 70 Sheep Fair DayJohn Burnside 72 from Of Gravity and lightR.S. Thomas 73 The Bright FieldAgha Shahid Ali 73 StationeryT.S. Eliot 74 The Love Song of J. Alfred PrufrockCzesław Miłosz 78 A ConfessionDenise Levertov 79 O Taste and SeeLi-Young Lee 80 From BlossomsPhilip Levine 81 The Simple TruthPablo Neruda 82 Sweetness, AlwaysJane Kenyon 84 HappinessEdwin Morgan 85 TrioMichael Donaghy 86 The PresentJaan Kaplinski 87 ‘The washing never gets done…’Yehuda Amichai 88 A Man in His LifeLouis MacNeice 89 EntirelyLes Murray 90 An Absolutely Ordinary RainbowNaomi Shihab Nye 91 KindnessElizabeth Bishop 93 One ArtDana Gioia 94 Nothing Is LostJane Hirshfield 95 The WeighingJane Hirshfield 96 Burlap SackMourid Barghouti 96 SilenceJack Gilbert 97 A Brief for the DefenseW.H. Auden 98 Musée des Beaux ArtsMiroslav Holub 98 The flyYehuda Amichai 100 The Place Where We Are RightYehuda Amichai 101 The Diameter of the BombGeoffrey Hill 102 September SongMichael Longley 103 All of These PeopleNorman MacCaig 104 The Red and the BlackAdam Zagajewski 105 Try to Praise the Mutilated WorldStephen Dunn 106 SweetnessMichael Coady 107 Though There Are TorturersNâzim Hikmet 108 It’s This WayMohja Kahf 109 Hijab Scene #7Imtiaz Dharker 109 They’ll say, ‘She must be from another country’Philip Larkin 112 AubadeDavid Constantine 114 Common and ParticularW.H. Auden 115 Funeral BluesNorman MacCaig 116 MemorialJackie Kay 117 DarlingCharles Causley 118 Eden RockRaymond Carver 119 GravyArundhathi Subramaniam 120 PrayerT.S. Eliot 121 from Four QuartetsSeamus Heaney 124 PostscriptRaymond Carver 124 Late Fragment 126 Notes on poems and poets156 Acknowledgements158 Index of writers159 Index of titles