Dr. Rowan Williams, fresh from feeling uncomfortable with Obama for killing Osama, has now announced that the Coalition is undemocratic, because it is doing things to education, health and so on no one voted for. I suppose the same argument can be made about any government that responds to events (dear boy) and makes decisions, and hence, that's actually what democracy is, electing people to go out and make the tough choices - but actually, Dr. Williams (not known for making tough decisions himself) is right about one thing - this is a Keystone Kuts kind of government. Sure, they are decisive and vicious, but they are also bottlers, who "U-Turn" (are you tiring of this phrase and its baby sister, climb-down?) at the drop of a Ken Clark bon mot. Punishment? No 50% time off for confessing rapists, after all. Education? Ooops, we may have to cut student places after all. Health? Umm, well, we listened, and we won't really be doing that after all. This is a government listing more than listening, a stammering series of gaffes, rethinks, and policy deviations. It is a pathetic hodge-podge, and I hope it gets tossed out in 2015. Long time to wait.
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. What do I mean by smart?
Comments
I don't like this government any more than you do but they were democratically elected - sort of. Nick Clegg claims with some justification that if he hadn't gone into coalition with Cameron, there would have been another general election which the Tories would probably have won outright. With a bit of luck, this lot will get the deficit under control just in time for Labour's re-election in 2015.
Best wishes from Simon
Simon @ Gists and Piths
He don't know how to lie or undermine you
He don't know how to steal
How to deal or deceive
So leave him alone
Set him free
'Cause he's speaking with the angel
Speaking with the angel that only he can see.
You'd say he's so helpless
But what about you?
You don't pull the string
Don't you know anything?
Leave him alone, let him be
'Cause he's speaking with the angel
Speaking with the angel that only he can see
Would you teach him 'bout heaven?
Would you show him how to love the earth?
Would you poison him with prejudice from
the moment of his birth?
He in the name of love, he in the blood of lamb
He that never lays blame, he don't even know his name
So leave him alone, set him free
'Cause he's speaking with the angel
Speaking with the angel (the very one)
that spoke to you and me
Oh do you remember?
Ron in the Crane bar, Cork