Hi Sally,
I like the quote! But I guess in our playful postmodern culture, poets can
become like children again...
Did you have any "established/establishment poets" specifically in mind?
I can think of one or two Bob-The-Builder look-a-like-types to stand next to
Andrew Motion - maybe they could sing a song together...
(how about Peter Porter in a hard hat? He ought to wear one!)
Bob
>From: Sally Evans <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Poetry in Motion
>Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2002 23:31:16 +0100
>
>I just found this super phrase in a gardening book:
>
>You don't buld a wall because you like bricks....
>
>I feel that a number of English established poets are doing just that:
>building walls because they like bricks.
>
>I wonder why this correspondence about Andrew and the Lemsip seems
>relevant?
>bw
>SallyE
>
>
>
>on 24/10/02 9:05 pm, Bob Cooper at [log in to unmask] wrote:
>
> > H'm, Lemsip...
> > I guess if I were to write a critical review of his poetry I may feel
> > pleased to have said that he writes in "that sort of slightly
>introverted
> > self-pitying mood that a mild illness can give." but I don't think I
>would
> > be more than damning him with faint praise...
> > I wonder what other drink/drugs/substances he had to take, though,
>before he
> > admitted this?
> > Bob
> >
> >
> >
> >> From: grasshopper <[log in to unmask]>
> >> Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
> >> To: [log in to unmask]
> >> Subject: Poetry in Motion
> >> Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2002 22:21:44 +0100
> >>
> >> from the BBC:
> >>
> >> Poet Laureate Andrew Motion has admitted to using chemical stimulation
>to
> >> help him write poetry - a daily cup of cold remedy Lemsip, according to
> >> reports.
> >> The poet told the Daily Telegraph he had no idea how it helped -
>although
> >> it
> >> gave him the sensation of having "a mild illness".
> >> "It works. I've been doing it for years and it's become habitual," he
>said.
> >> "Years and years ago, I read in a biography of AE Housman that he wrote
> >> most
> >> of A Shropshire Lad while he had a cold.
> >> "And I thought, yes, I know about that - that sort of slightly
>introverted
> >> self-pitying mood that a mild illness can give."
> >> "It is absolutely conducive to poems," he added.
> >> Motion said that Lemsip, which contains a decongestant and well as
>traces
> >> of
> >> caffeine and paracetamol, allowed him to "fool myself into feeling a
>bit
> >> ill".
> >> The poet, who was born in London and educated at Oxford University,
> >> published his first collection of poetry in 1977.
> >>
> >> He is an admirer of Philip Larkin, whom he has called "possibly the
>finest
> >> expository lyrical poet".
> >> Motion won a Whitbread Award for his biography of the poet.
> >> In 1995, he succeeded Malcolm Bradbury as professor of creative writing
>at
> >> the University of East Anglia and in 1998 he was appointed Poet
>Laureate.
> >> A number of 19th-Century poets, including Thomas de Quincey, Samuel
>Taylor
> >> Coleridge and Edgar Allen Poe, were known to use stronger substances to
> >> encourage their creativity.
> >> "It's my Lemsip-inspired trance, and I can only say thank heavens it's
>not
> >> laudanum or absinthe," said Motion.
> >> A spokesman for Lemsip manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser reassured users:
>"It
> >> is fair to say that it doesn't cause poetry in most people."
> >
> >
> > _________________________________________________________________
> > Get faster connections -- switch to MSN Internet Access!
> > http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/default.asp
_________________________________________________________________
Surf the Web without missing calls! Get MSN Broadband.
http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/freeactivation.asp
|