I think I am shooting at writing that doesnt have a point or fulfil a need
other than to show off what good poems you can write.

That is not the primary function of poetry in my opinion.

The primary function is to make good use of language to transcend the crises
(including boredom) of life,

bw
SallyE

on 25/10/02 12:19 pm, Bob Cooper at [log in to unmask] wrote:

> 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."
>>> 
>>> 
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