Love Is Strong as Death cover art

Love Is Strong as Death

Poems Chosen by Paul Kelly

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Love Is Strong as Death

By: Paul Kelly
Narrated by: Paul Kelly
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About this listen

Paul Kelly's songs are steeped in poetry. And now he has gathered from around the world the poems he loves - poems that have inspired and challenged him over the years, a number of which he has set to original music that is exclusive to the audiobook. This wide-ranging and deeply moving anthology combines the ancient and the modern, the hallowed and the profane, the famous and the little known, to speak to two of literature's great themes that have proven so powerful in his music: love and death - plus everything in between.

Here are poems by Yehuda Amichai, W.H. Auden, Tusiata Avia, Hera Lindsay Bird, William Blake, Bertolt Brecht, Constantine Cavafy, Alison Croggon, Mahmoud Darwish, Emily Dickinson, John Donne, Ali Cobby Eckermann, James Fenton, Thomas Hardy, Kevin Hart, Gwen Harwood, Seamus Heaney, Philip Hodgins, Homer, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Langston Hughes, John Keats, Ono No Komachi, Maxine Kumin, Philip Larkin, Li-Young Lee, Norman MacCaig, Paula Meehan, Czeslaw Milosz, Les Murray, Pablo Neruda, Sharon Olds, Ovid, Sylvia Plath, Dorothy Porter, Rumi, Anne Sexton, William Shakespeare, Izumi Shikibu, Warsan Shire, Kenneth Slessor, Wislawa Szymborska, Moire Mhac an tSaoi, Ko Un, Walt Whitman, Judith Wright, W.B. Yeats and many more.

©2019 Paul Kelly (P)2019 Penguin Random House Australia
Collections & Anthologies Poetry
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Audible quickly responded to feedback and increased silent pauses between poems.
This is now an enjoyable, diverse listening experience.

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A huge companion of poetry welcoming to everyone. This is my first introduction to poetry, and what a treat to be led the way by Paul's narration and music.
I'm glad I picked up both the audio/ebook to help follow the poems as I listened along.

A Moveable Feast

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I've always been a fan of Paul Kelly's music and the raw beauty of his lyrics, so when I heard him sing from this collection on the radio I knew I needed to hear the whole book of poetry spoken aloud in his voice. It's a beautiful and varied selection of poems, mainly spoken, but some set to music. It was lovely to dip in and out on my commute to work and revisit some poems I first heard at school, as well as discover some new ones. A really beautiful listening experience!

A beautiful listen - sung and spoken by Paul Kelly

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Ugh ugh ugh who thought this was a good idea??? These are some beautiful poems but who would want to listen to Paul Kelly read them? why did he think he could or should? Why wouldn't you get someone who understands live poetry reading? They're not Paul's poems and his reading voice is awful and he slurs half the words as well. I've heard Beyonce read Warsan Shire and then to hear this version was just a horrible nightmare. I don't understand this book at all, even for big Paul Kelly fans. Worst present ever. Leave this book and go find Jeremy Irons and Tom Hiddleston reading poetry on Youtube.

absolutely awful!

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.