People who know me may be
surprised to know that I love poetry. There you go I’ve said it now ! I have a
particular liking for real life gritty poetry, poetry that I can identify with;
poetry that has a sense of humour or irony. I can just about recite one or two
of my favourite poems. I can quote chunks of others. Not for me Wordsworth and
the like, for me it’s more WB Yeats or John Cooper Clarke.
Still very very relevant to today’s
world, some of Yeats’ sound bites are bang on the truth :
“People who lean on logic and
philosophy and rational exposition end by starving the best part of the mind”
“Life is a long preparation for
something that never happens.”
“Think like a wise man but
communicate in the language of the people.”
And one of my all
time favourites, which applies to many of our political commentators today :- “All empty souls tend towards extreme
opinions”
I don’t agree that poetry should be forced down kid’s necks at school as part of the National Curriculum that would just be counterproductive and put kids off poetry for life. Let them discover it for themselves, poems discovered and learned in context can be a lifelong pleasure.
Politicians do they have poetry in their soul?
Just before he was gunned down,
John F Kennedy gave a remarkable speech in memory of the poet Robert Frost who
had died earlier that year. It included the following amazing lines:
“When power leads men towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his
limitations. When power narrows the areas of man’s concern, poetry reminds him
of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry
cleanses. For art establishes the basic human truth which must serve as the
touchstone of our judgment.”
Just how close to the truth is
that? It shows poetry has an intrinsic connection to politics. Both seek the
truth in a given situation; both must be honest to be effective; both engage
the mind and emotions in equal parts; both can lift the spirits and inspire you
to look at the stars instead of the gutter; both can wind you up; both can send
you down.
A few years ago, Gordon Brown came
up with ‘Invictus’ by WE Henley as his favourite poem. Invictus is all about
the poet’s belief that he is the ‘I am
the master of my soul/I am the captain of my fate’. It’s one of those
poems, like ‘If’ by Kipling (said to be Mrs Thatcher’s favourite poem) or ‘The
Lays of Ancient Rome by Macaulay’ (which Winston Churchill knew off by heart)
which sound stirring, but don’t bear much close examination. Another one is GK
Chesterton’s ‘The Secret People’ which Martin Bell quoted on his election as an
independent in 1997:
“Smile at us, pay us, pass us; but do not quite forget/For we are
the people of England, that never have spoken yet.”
David Cameron takes the easy way
out with his favourite poem, he chooses ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ by Wilfred Owen,
the famous war poem which most of us learned at school. For me however, I will
always associate David Cameron with this John Cooper Clarke poem :
TWAT
Like a Night Club in the morning,
you're the bitter end
Like a recently disinfected
shit-house, you're clean round the bend.
You give me the horrors
too bad to be true
All of my tomorrow's
are lousy coz of you.
You put the Shat in Shatter
Put the Pain in Spain
Your germs are splattered about
Your face is just a stain
You're certainly no raver,
commonly known as a drag.
Do us all a favour, here... wear
this polythene bag.
You're like a dose of scabies,
I’ve got you under my skin.
You make life a fairy tale...
Grimm!
People mention murder, the moment
you arrive.
I’d consider killing you if I
thought you were alive.
You've got this slippery quality,
it makes me think of phlegm,
and a dual personality
I hate both of them.
Your bad breath, vamps disease,
destruction, and decay.
Please, please, please, please,
take yourself away.
Like a death in a birthday party,
you ruin all the fun.
Like a sucked and spat our
Smartie,
you're no use to anyone.
like the shadow of the guillotine
on a dead consumptive's face.
Speaking as an outsider,
what do you think of the human
race
You went to a progressive
psychiatrist.
He recommended suicide...
before scratching your bad name
off his list,
and pointing the way outside.
You hear laughter breaking
through, it makes you want to fart.
You’re heading for a breakdown,
better pull yourself apart.
Your dirty name gets passed about
when something goes amiss.
Your attitudes are platitudes,
just make me wanna piss.
What kind of creature bore you
Was is some kind of bat
They can’t find a good word for
you,
but I can...
TWAT
