I was listening to Gillian Clarke, a good poet, and the Welsh Laureate,
talking on Radio 3 the other night, and she read out this dreadfully banal
piece that she'd written and read out before a 'multi-cultural' audience in
Birmingham to celebrate Obama's success. It's not a good idea taking on
these roles.
Mind you Carol Ann might be a bit quiet for a while as she's reportedly
insisting on having the 'butt of sack' Motion didn't) which is apparently
600 bottles of sherry.
grin
dave
2009/5/2 Robin Hamilton <[log in to unmask]>
> From: "David Bircumshaw" <[log in to unmask]>
>
> It is true, Jon, that there are such echoes, but at the same time there
>> are
>> quite a few local or regional 'poet laureates', appointed for varying
>> periods by various bodies, such as councils or arts bureaucracies, and it
>> really is hard to hear any tribal drums echoing about them. It is much
>> more
>> like the American system for the national laureate, and both dull and
>> sometimes of dubious practice.
>>
>> 2009/5/1 Jon Corelis <[log in to unmask]>
>>
>
> ... and of course the most interesting laureates were those who were
> unofficial, self-proclaimed, such as Petrarch or Skelton.
>
> R.
>
--
David Bircumshaw
"Nothing can be done in the face
of ordinary unhappiness" - PP
Website and A Chide's Alphabet
http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
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