A Poem On The Eve of the Election

Eyewear is very pleased, on the eve of election day, to offer readers an occasional light verse poem by a creative writing student of mine - a poem on being undecided in the UK that has a particular resonance with me, for one. Thomas Hewson is a 21-year old Kingston University student. He lives in South Yorkshire and will be voting in the Sheffield-Hallam constituency on May 6th. Sheffield Hallam’s current MP, and prospective MP, is the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg - whom will be expecting to win the seat with a comfortable majority.

Voting on May 6th

Gordon Brown wants substance over style,
Cameron thinks Labour should be put on trial.
But the Lib Dems are definitely affirmative -
Cleggy boy offers a brand new alternative.
As for the other parties, UKIP and Green,
they have no real policies I think it would seem,
and then there is Griffin, who for power does hunt,
- I’ll say just this – he’s an ignorant…

Cameron, you’ll spend our money without any waste -
well if that’s true we’ll elect you with haste -
but if there’s one thing we’ve learned from the past,
this doesn’t work, so how long can you last? -
Policy to save our economy you claim to pull out of your hat,
yet your party had Thatcher, so I smell a rat.
Funny, what we all know, and this pun I’ll savour,
Sam Cam is now fast moving towards Labour!

Then there is Gordon, Briton’s unelected Prime Minister,
carries with him that fact, which I think is sinister.
Although, I have to say, I feel sorry for this Scottish man,
he was given the job with economics down the pan,
the question is, does he have the experience to know what to do,
to drive us in the right direction – can that be really true?
Certainly, I prefer the country to how it was after Tory reign,
but does Labour need a break now to re-establish its name?

So, my friend, Nick, from good old Yorkshire,
promises change, but that’s all I can hear,
from the city of industry, he’s down with the proles,
an appearance of the commonness, like most of us souls,
he keeps saying, ‘my constituency, my town, Sheffield’ -
it has the highest professional jobs ratio in its yield -
I’m not saying with Lib Dems in parliament Britain can’t enhance,
but the taking of office? – they haven’t really got a chance.

Yet there is one possibility now to roll off my tongue,
and that’s parliament stagnating because it is hung,
it would mean a re-shuffle and another election -
giving Lib Dems power – now isn’t that quite the exception!
With their support, Brown could stay at number ten,
even if the Tories won more seats than them.
That doesn’t sound fair, that doesn’t sound right,
but for me all the options seem like utter shite.

Finally, what I find irritating, when grilling leaders in a Q&A,
is that the MP’s expenses scandal nearly always gets in the way,
is it really too hard for the questioners to actually see
they’ve chosen the one topic in which all three will agree,
they say “Cheating MP’s should be given the sack”
Yes! Well done! But it’s telling us new policy you lack!
I don’t know a huge amount about politics, so I cannot gloat,
but this year I just simply do not know which way to vote.

poem by Thomas Hewson

A poem for my mother, July 15 When she was dying And I was in a different country I dreamt I was there with her Flying over the ocean very quickly, And arriving in the room like a dream And I was a dream, but the meaning was more Than a dream has – it was a moving over time And land, over water, to get love across Fast enough, to be there, before she died, To lean over the small, huddled figure, In the dark, and without bothering her Even with apologies, and be a kiss in the air, A dream of a kiss, or even less, the thought of one, And when I woke, none of this had happened, She was still far distant, and we had not spoken.

Poetry vs. Literature

Poetry is, of course, a part of literature. But, increasingly, over the 20th century, it has become marginalised - and, famously, has less of an audience than "before". I think that, when one considers the sort of criticism levelled against Seamus Heaney and "mainstream poetry", by poet-critics like Jeffrey Side , one ought to see the wider context for poetry in the "Anglo-Saxon" world. This phrase was used by one of the UK's leading literary cultural figures, in a private conversation recently, when they spoke eloquently about the supremacy of "Anglo-Saxon novels" and their impressive command of narrative. My heart sank as I listened, for what became clear to me, in a flash, is that nothing has changed since Victorian England (for some in the literary establishment). Britain (now allied to America) and the English language with its marvellous fiction machine, still rule the waves. I personally find this an uncomfortable position - but when ...

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart? A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional. Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were. For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ? Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets. But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ? How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular. John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se....

E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

Search This Blog