The former Poet Laureate, Sir Andrew Motion, recently commented that poetry had the same social cachet as clog dancing during an interview with The Independent. After the recent round of funding cuts by the Arts Council of England (ACE), it seems that poetry now has an even lower status. Several small presses and publishers such as Enitharmon, Flambard, Arc and Salt are going to lose all their funding from 2012. Worst of all; the Poetry Book Society (PBS) which has done such an excellent job in promoting poetry since 1953, is also to lose all its ACE funding. This is a particularly savage and barbaric act since the PBS has done more than most to raise the profile of poetry today. The current Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, has published an angry response in today's Guardian in the form of a parody of Louis MacNeice's Bagpipe Music:-
"It's no go, dear PBS. It's no go sweet poets.
Sat on your arses for fifty years and never turned a profit.
All we want are bureaucrats, the nods as good as winkers.
And if you're strapped for cash, go fish, then try the pigging bankers."
I like the not-so-subtle omitted rhyme of "bankers" and "wankers". In the extensive notes to her poem Duffy quotes the poet Carol Rumens:- "The withdrawal of Arts Council England support for the PBS is an incomprehensible act of vandalism."
The ACE has had a very difficult balancing act in deciding how to allocate the misery of cuts, but the cutting of the PBS funds is definitely a cut too far. On the other hand I'm delighted to note that ACE has decided to continue its support for the English Folk Dance and Song Society, with significantly increased funding.
On a lighter note here's a poetic tribute to one of the finest clog dancers of all, Sam Sherry 1912-2001:-
Poetry in motion
His feet land with a snap
and a slap;
with a rapid tappity-tap his heels
spin like wheels
before coming to a full stop.
Then a leap, and a hop,
and off he goes
heels and toes
forward and back
clickety-clack.
That's the way to do it; and now
he makes a low bow.
© Matthew Edwards 2010
"It's no go, dear PBS. It's no go sweet poets.
Sat on your arses for fifty years and never turned a profit.
All we want are bureaucrats, the nods as good as winkers.
And if you're strapped for cash, go fish, then try the pigging bankers."
I like the not-so-subtle omitted rhyme of "bankers" and "wankers". In the extensive notes to her poem Duffy quotes the poet Carol Rumens:- "The withdrawal of Arts Council England support for the PBS is an incomprehensible act of vandalism."
The ACE has had a very difficult balancing act in deciding how to allocate the misery of cuts, but the cutting of the PBS funds is definitely a cut too far. On the other hand I'm delighted to note that ACE has decided to continue its support for the English Folk Dance and Song Society, with significantly increased funding.
On a lighter note here's a poetic tribute to one of the finest clog dancers of all, Sam Sherry 1912-2001:-
Poetry in motion
His feet land with a snap
and a slap;
with a rapid tappity-tap his heels
spin like wheels
before coming to a full stop.
Then a leap, and a hop,
and off he goes
heels and toes
forward and back
clickety-clack.
That's the way to do it; and now
he makes a low bow.
© Matthew Edwards 2010
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