REAL POETRY

Well, what a disaster it was asking Tony Adams to contribute some poetry to this weblog!

However, we all learn from our mistakes. Wasn't he an old miseryguts? If men had all been like that when I was young we would never have won the war!

Still, a number of readers phoned or wrote to me to say that they knew what "real" poetry was. Many of them agreed with me that Patience Strong is the best poet of all time. I'm so glad that many of you feel the same way!

I would particularly like to thank reader Mr Barry Onions, who lives in a village in the West Country. He suggested the poem "Desiderata" is one of the finest ever written. I have to agree with him. It really is a "feelgood" poem, as they say, and very inspiring.

You can read the words here. Aren't they great? I particularly like the advice to "avoid loud and aggressive persons". This is so true! I work in a sweetshop, and find that a lot of the children of today are loud and aggressive. Some of them even ignore the notice on the front of the door saying that only two children at a time can come in to the shop!

There is also a lovely interpretation of the words set to music, spoken by Les Crane, who has what we used to call a "dark brown" voice. I must say, I generally don't like much modern pop music, apart from the Cliff Adams Singers or Edmundo Ross. The awful Glenda tried to persuade me that the pop group Tears For Fears were "music". You call that load of shouting and noise music?! However, this song is very easy on the ear. The video here has lots of lovely images of youngsters. It's only when I realise that in a few years they'll be the sort of little horrors who cause so much carnage in my sweetshop that I begin to shudder.

Still, don't let that put you off.

Yours faithfully,
Betty Prentiss