When I saw this sign in a Swansea car park…
“MORE POETRY MUST BE READ!”. . . my first thought was, whoever placed it there, wasn’t much of a poet. Actually that was my second thought.
My first was, have I got enough change for the machine?
If you think I was critical about whoever put up the sign, consider the facts . .
With a great big white space to fill, all they could come up with was an uninspiring instruction to read more poetry. What a wasted opportunity.
They could have put a smile on people’s faces by writing…
MORE POETRY MUST BE READ.
ESPECIALLY FIRST THING IN THE MORNING
AND JUST BEFORE YOU GO TO BED.
If they’d been the more avant-garde type of poet, they could have added these lines…
’TIS TRUE POETRY IS VITAL IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES
BUT UNFORTUNATELY NOT EVERY POEM ENDS
IN A SATISFACTORY MANNER.
Not being a fan of poetry, if I’d been in a mischievous mood and had a black felt-tip pen on me, I might have added a couple of lines of my own to the instruction.
MORE POETRY MUST BE READ.
BUT THINK OF US NON-POETRY FANS
AND DO IT IN YOUR SHED.
I’ve always thought poets would make better use of their talents if they hooked-up with musicians and became song-writers.
Because the very best song lyrics are just poems set to music,
Paul McCartney published a book of Beatles lyrics a few years ago and promoted it – famously at the Hay Festival – by reciting a selection from the book as poems. And they sounded just as entertaining as if he’d been singing them with the Fab Four.
William Shakespeare was famous for using something called the ‘Iambic Pentameter’ in his rhyming couplets, which refers to the way certain syllables are emphasised.
Not being an expert on the Bard of Avon I only know this because years ago I was taught this poem…
ON NO ACCOUNT SHOULD IAMBIC PENTAMETERS
BE LEFT IN THE HANDS OF TALENTLESS AMATEURS
And remember folks, when you’re self-employed, every day is POETS day!