KNOW A GOOD POET?

Press, 19 April 1980, Page 14

KNOW A GOOD POET?

By

WHIM WHAM

. . the wisest among us are still occasionally fooled by rhythm—if only insofar as we sometimes consider an idea truer simply because it has a metrical form and presents itself with a divine skip and jump. Isn’t it rather amusing that to this day the most serious philosophers . . . still' call on what poets have said in order to lend their ideas force and credibility 8 . .—Nietzsche, ‘Die Frohliche Wissenscnaft (tr. Kaufmann).

I had a funny Dream last Night — From Vogel House a Letter came. The obscure Address was mine, all right, So was the undistinguished Name. An Honour was conferred on Me! It was his Pleasure to bestow It, I was the first P.M;F.P;—: ; / Prime Minister’s Favourite : Poet.

And (in my Dream) I heard him?say, The Media go from Bad to Worse — The More I read their Prose, each Day, The More I love your gentle Verse — You’re only Half a . Journalist, With Half a Beehive in your Bonnet. One. Poet doesn’t'make a List! Remember-Me in your next Sonnet

And (dreaming still) I heard him speak — They’re getting at Me, all the Time! Come to my Conference next Week — Retaliate for Me, in Rhyme! I begged him, Couldn’t there be found A better Poet for the Job? He wouldn’t listen — I was crowned. ; \ Reluctant Laureate to Rob.

Arid then I woke,. a little shaken' — ■•i Who wouldnit be, by such a Dream? And wondering, had I been mistaken • In ever making HIM my Theme? And as for Sonnets, Ballads, Odes, I’ve Nothing of that Kind to add — Wait till my Masterpiece explodes. My Epic — the MULDOONIAD!