Poetry, elections, heroes and washing-up liquid?
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Eddie,
I read sometimes via the Web and talking of heroes - in a new poll Tony Blair is seen as the ONLY acceptable alternative to Gordon Brown as the Labour leader and presumably PM again - if the Conservative Party lead in the polls is to be reduced?
It made me think. Has that ever happened anywhere in the world? A man who is replaced as leader of his Party - replaces his successor before any new Election has been called?
What is the reason our collective memory is so short I also wondered.
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Is the washing up liquid a follow on from the dinner item, Eddie? And who's wielding the scourer?
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talking of washing up! why do brides wear white when getting married?
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so they don't clash with the rest of the kitchen appliences.
(ok..ok I'm going)
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I have just heard the speakers on ipm talking about the withdrawal of Duffy's excellent poem. I am an English teacher who has taught the poem since it was first published in the AQA Anthology and I can confidently say that none of my students have ever felt the need to go out and emulate any of the actions described within it, but it has prompted some very useful classroom discussion. The people calling for the exclusion of this poem have missed the whole point of it entirely.
How ridiculous to say that we should not read about violence with our students, that we should read 'modern' poets like Wordsworth! Of course it is important that our students have access to the literary canon as well, but we ignore modern writers at our peril. Perhaps we ought not to teach Lord of the Flies, Of Mice and Men or The Crucible either? I dread to think what our society would be like if these censors had their way - there may be a lot we would like to change in our world, but we will not achieve it by banning poetry.
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Challenging poetry. It has been with us seemly forever.
Phillip Larkin's
"They **** you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
But they were ****ed up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another's throats.
Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don't have any kids yourself"
But procreation continues doesn't it?
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Hadron Collider
Wednesday 10th September,
mark this day on your calendar,
Every scientist will wake to say
"Yippee it's Hadron Collider Day!"
"Today we get to flick the switch,
let's hope it goes without a hitch,
or else there'll be a big black hole
to swallow every mortal soul".
"Or else we'll all get turned to goo
and there'll be nothing else to do,
but gaze around in awe-struck wonder
at clever peoples' major blunder".
Of sub-atomic particles,
reporters write their articles,
"Do not trust the scientists
searching reasons we exist!"
"They have not you or I in mind,
nor the good of all mankind!"
Apocolyptic speculation,
scientists above their station.
How do we begin to find
cures for ills, to heal the blind?
If scientists are bogeymen,
it really is the end-amen.
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POLITICIAN
I’m a politician
I choose my words with care
To say precisely what’s not on my mind
No matter what was asked
My evasion’s unsurpassed
The word “integrity” I’ve re-defined.
I am on a mission
To bring a better life
Through that wonder of mankind; democracy
The way it is defined
I should heed the voter mind
But that interferes with rank hypocrisy.
I need no permission
My passport’s this rosette
That the punters voted for when I got in.
I owe people no allegiance
It’s the Party gave me my chance
I shall do my leader’s will through thick and thin.
I am raw ambition
It has consumed my soul
So much the better – I am free to act.
On the stage of politics
I use all the actor tricks
And find fiction so much truer than is fact.
I make no admission
Save in every word I speak
And those who have the ear, hear me well.
I talk my way to promotion
With such party-line devotion
Unaware that each rise takes me nearer hell.
My sins of commission
Have triggered total fission
We’re in meltdown and it can’t get any hotter.
Charisma doesn’t last;
All my greatness in the past
They have rumbled that I’m just a dirty rotter.
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Eddie,
I heard Sat pm re the withdrawal of Duffy's poem and the proposed substitute - Stealing? (also by Duffy).
In the week the Beijing Paralympics began may I propose instead a poem by
Duro Onota, a teacher at secondary school in Abuja, Nigeria. Mr Onata who lost the ability to read printed texts in 1991, is an advocate for CBM - the world's largest organisation working with people with disabilities. www.cbmuk.org.uk
Here's an extract from his poem 'Having my say':
Let me have my say
As the spirit inspires
As my soul interprets
The divine messages
Let me be uncelebrated
Refusing to tread beaten trails
But always be remembered
To have had my say my way
by Duro Onota
Please let's give the next generation something positive to focus on.
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