"Carol Ann Duffy At University Of Chester"

On Monday, Carol Ann Duffy, Poet Laureate, read her poetry at the University of Chester, as part of LitFest.
A large audience shared Duffy's words, feelings, ideas and her memories. They found comfort and pleasure. They probably found many things.
A large audience empathised with and lauded the skill of Duffy....her powers as wordsmith...then, ( I imagine!) they went home and ransacked their bookshelves and sat up in bed till after midnight....re-reading Duffy's words, before falling asleep with those words dangling and ringing and singing in their ears.

Duffy read from her anthologies, incl " The World's Wife" ( poetry monologues, spoken by women gracing history, legend, the Bible. ) She read poems chronicling a love affair ...from start to finish, from her collection: "Rapture".

BUT my favourite is the simply-named : " Prayer" . Duffy read this as her penultimate poem on Monday.
Every time I read it, I'm in my 1st week as a student. Its dusk in a town I don't know and lectures are over and I walk with friends I don't know (who are not yet my friends)....and we wander along a tree-lined drive to a place I don't know.....and on Monday, like then, I was in that drive again....picturing my mother at home ( without me).... sipping tea in a tea-time kitchen( without me)... and she's missing me and I'm certainly missing her.. ...
Lines in that poem stab with their beauty, their recognition....