Chairman's Chat

May 2008

Those Two Impostors
This is a terrible confession, I know, but for a long time poetry, for me, was a waste of time. Until the persistent efforts of friends - one of whom bought me "The Nations Favourite 100 Poems" - began to bear fruit. Maybe it was the old reason - school somehow managed to put me off it for 60 years. (They nearly put me off running, too, but that's another story.) Couldn't connect with daffodils waving in the breeze and all that stuff which has to be spoken in a sonorous, sing-song voice. Norman McCaig writes about the mountains of Scotland in a way which makes an impression. And of course, The Nations Favourite Poem has meant more recently. You may have to suffer my poetic efforts on this page in the future. Sorry.

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