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www.bobandpoetry.com. Details of online poetry events, poetry podcasts, literary festivals, book readings, open-mics, poetry competitions from around the net. News of live poetry events, book launches and open mics in the Leeds area, including Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield, Ilkley, Otley, Saltaire, Wakefield, York, West Yorkshire. Find links to poets, poetry publishers and poetry magazines. Hosted by Bob Dunning. August 2025 Quote of the Month "Strike it down, that other boughs may flourish Where that perished sapling used to be; Thus, at least, its mouldering corpse will nourish That from which it sprung - Eternity. " From 'Death' by Emily Brontë No Coward Soul Is Mine Penguin Classics, London, 2025 (Clicking the image will take you to the book's website and this will have different cookies to this site) 20 + Poetry Things You Could Do Today 1) From this site - check out poets reading their poems ... See: Bob and Poetry.com: Short poetry clips - YouTube For longer readings and films see: Bob and Poetry.com : Readings On YouTube - YouTube I add to these playlists all the time so do keep checking. 2) ... And visit the Poetry Magazine's Page There links to dozens of sites on poetry. Blue Marble Review - Literary Journal for Young Writers , for instance, regularly has a free, new, online magazine to read and posted new poems in July 2025. Or, The Lake - contemporary poetry webzine - POETRY , showcases new poetry nearly every month, the most recent being August 2025. 3. (From How to Go Home | Eleanor Robins | Substack ) The Imagining Realm If you are having a day in which you are wanting to write poetry, or perhaps would like to be having one of those days, I would like to recommend you spend a few minutes watching this video on Eleanor Robin's Substack page. To watch click this link: My top practice for creating from the imaginal real 4. (From Writer's Digest ) Wednesday Poetry Prompts - Writer's Digest Following a month of daily prompts in April 2025, Robert Lee Brewer is now offering weekly Wednesday Poetry Prompts, which may contrast a little with my preferred approach from Eleanor Robins, but it is important we all find our own way ahead, and they are by no means mutually exclusive. The archive of these prompts extends over 110 pages. 'Are you passionate about writing poetry? This is where you’ll find poetry prompts, solid tips on writing poetry, interviews with poets, and blog posts highlighting various poetic forms. Sit back, relax, and learn more about the craft of poetry!' To see, click the link Write Better Poetry | Poetic Forms | Poetry Prompts - Writer's Digest 5) (From Plume | Online Poetry Magazine ) Plume Issue #168 August 2025 Archives - Plume "In brief, Plume is a magazine dedicated to publishing the very best of contemporary poetry. To that end, we will be highly selective, offering twelve poems per monthly issue." There is an extensive archive to enjoy, too For this edition see: Plume Issue #168 August 2025 Archives - Plume 6) (From Of Poetry Podcast – Kitchen table conversations with poets ) Episode 77: Jameela F. Dallis (Of Oysters, Ekphrasis, and Filtering Emotion through The Beasts of the Sea) " Jameela F. Dallis lives in Durham, NC. Her publications include poems, interviews, arts journalism, and literary scholarship in Feminist Studies..." All the episodes are available from the site's homepage. See Episode 77: Jameela F. Dallis (Of Oysters, Ekphrasis, and Filtering Emotion through The Beasts of the Sea) 7) (From Carol Rumens's poem of the week | Books | The Guardian website page ) Carol Rumens' Poem of the Week A faultlessly consistent article in a national newspaper, and always available online, too. See Poem of the week: Carol Rumens's poem of the week | The Guardian 8) (From The Fig Tree | Tim Fellows | Substack ) The Fig Tree Issue 8 'Welcome to the eighth issue of The Fig Tree, sandwiched between parts one and two of the Coal Mining Special ... This issue’s Featured Poet, Joe Williams ... Once again I hope you enjoy reading this issue as much as I did collating it. You are joining over 500 people who are reading the webzine on a regular basis.' Read this issue at The Fig Tree - Issue 8 - by Tim Fellows - The Fig Tree All Back issues and the two Coal Mining Anthologies are available at : The Fig Tree | Tim Fellows | Substack 9) (From Dust Poetry Magazine ) Issue 14 is now available. The new June 2025 edition of this has just been posted. See: Issue 14 All 14 editions are available on the website. 10) (From Top Writing Contests website) Enter Your Poem Into a Competition Wrting Competitons .Net list all the current competitions that you can enter. If you subscribe to their email they will keep you posted on new ones as they come out. Its brilliant. See Top Writing Contests 11 ) (From Tin House website) Between The Covers Between the covers is a literary radio show and podcast hosted by David Naimon, is brought to you by Tin House. These long-form in-depth conversations have been singled out by the Guardian, Book Riot, the Financial Times, and BuzzFeed as one of the most notable book podcasts for writers and readers around. For Between the Covers Podcasts visit Between the Covers Podcast - Tin House For the most recent poetry book based podcast see: Laynie Browne : Apprentice to a Breathing Hand - Tin House 12) (From Poetry Extra webpage ) William Sieghart’s Poetry Pharmacy Daljit Nagra revisits the BBC's poetry archive. "William Sieghart welcomes you into his Poetry Pharmacy where he serves up poetic prescriptions to soothe the soul. He is the founder of the Forward Prize for Poetry and National Poetry Day. For William, poetry has never been the distant, lofty pursuit that it's sometimes portrayed as." From 2020. See: Poetry Extra - William Sieghart’s Poetry Pharmacy - BBC Sounds 13) (From The Buzz – The Hive Poetry Collective Website) S7: E28 Waking Up: New Book from Santa Cruz Teen Poets (Posted 23 August 2025) "Airing on KSQD 90.7 FM most Sundays at 8:00, the Hive Poetry Collective is a buzz of poets in Santa Cruz, California— a swarm of radio conversations, public readings, and writing workshops. " All episodes are available at the website. Hear the most recent podcast and all the archive at: The Hive Poetry Collective • A podcast on Spotify for Creators 14) (From West Wilts Radio ) The Poetry Place – West Wilts Radio (Click for archive) "The Poetry Place is a monthly poetry magazine programme bringing you news, views, readings and interviews from today’s poetry community, both locally and further afield. Presented by Dawn Gorman and Peter O’Grady, it brings inspiration and food for thought for everyone, from those who enjoy listening to the occasional poem, to people writing and publishing their own work. There's a new episode on the last Sunday of every month, with repeats from the archive on the other Sundays of the month." Hear the most recent new edition first broadcast on 27 July 2025 at : The Poetry Place with Lucy Heuschen & Julia Webb #67 15) (From Rattle Poetry ) Critique of the Week: A Live Video Workshop "It’s hard to find honest feedback about your work, but knowing how your poems are actually landing is more useful than any other advice a poet can get ... so we’d like to extend that experience to anyone who is interested. With Critique of the Week, we’ll workshop several poems publicly each week, via Facebook and YouTube. Participants will get a chance to hear how the Rattle editors would encounter a poem if it were a submission and offer suggestions for improvement. Everyone is then welcome to join in the discussion in the video’s comments section, providing their own thoughts and feedback. Subscribe to our YouTube Channel so that you don’t miss any of the critiques." For more information see: Critique of the Week - Rattle: Poetry Or see the latest live streamed event at : Rattlecast - Rattle: Poetry Or read the latest daily poem at: Rattle: Poetry (I sign up to the email daily post and strongly recommend it.) 16) (From E at The Storms website) May Storm, An all-county showcase for Poetry Day Ireland, 1 May 2025 Eat the Storms, the poetry podcast, will host its annual Poetry Day Ireland episode, featuring 32 poets, each reading a single poem to represent one of the 32 counties on the island of Ireland, our most popular episode each year. Hosted and produced by Damien B Donnelly, the podcast will go out at 8am on Thursday 1 May, on 12+ platforms including Spotify, Apple, Castbox, Podbean, Amazon Podcasts and YouTube. Visit: May Storm, an all-county showcase for Poetry Day Ireland 2025 – Storm Shelter Hear the podcast archive at: Listen to the Podcast – Storm Shelter 17) (From BBC Radio 4 - The Verb ) Forrest Gander, Laurie Bolger, SJ Fowler, Rachel Segal Hamilton Presented by Ian McMillan. First broadcast on 29 June, 2025. See The Verb - Forrest Gander, Laurie Bolger, SJ Fowler, Rachel Segal Hamilton - BBC Sounds Though this has slipped quite far down my list for no particular reason , The Verb is one of my favourite shows on radio and is available in podcast form. There is an archive of 258 episodes available at: BBC Radio 4 - The Verb - Available now 18) (From Moving Poems website) Watch the Best Poetry Videos on the Web The latest when I looked: Lost Stream by Fiona Tinwei Lam – Moving Poems " A poetry video based on a poem about the city’s hidden and lost streams. Animation by Quinn Kelly. Narration by the poet Fiona Tinwei Lam. Audio-recording by Lileth Charlet. Recorded at CEDaR sound studio at the University of British Columbia. Sound design by Bill Hardman. Part of the Vancouver Poet Laureate’s City Poems Project 2022-2024." Regularly updated there's 2453 videos (and counting) to see at Videopoems | Moving Poems 19 ) (From Spotify - Web Player: Music for everyone) Frank Skinner's Poetry Podcast 'Frank Skinner loves poetry and thinks you might like it too.' If you are able to use Spotify, I strongly recommend this podcast, which is free and has the complete archive available. Frank offers wonderful insights into poems and poets that have certainly broadened my understanding. As you would expect, from Frank Skinner his presentation style is highly engaging and entertaining. See Frank Skinner's Poetry Podcast | Podcast on Spotify 20) (From T.S. Eliot website) T.S. Eliot Prize The T.S. Eliot Prize winner for 2024 has now been announced, and videos of all the nominees can be seen. Every year of the prize I have enjoyed watching the poets read from their book, and say a little about themselves. See: Videos – The T. S. Eliot Prize See the whole amazing archive at T. S. Eliot Prize - YouTube 21) (From Apples and Snakes ) Read, Watch, Listen : Apples and Snakes Get the latest updates from the Apples and Snakes website at Read, Watch, Listen : Apples and Snakes Maybe hear the most recent podcast at: S3 EP20 | Amen Noir - Maintaining Presence | Apples and Snakes: The Podcast The archive of 38 podcasts is available at Apples and Snakes: The Podcast | Apples and Snakes . 22) (From London Review Bookshop website) New Faber Poetry "Isabelle Baafi, winner of the Somerset Maugham Award for her pamphlet Ripe, constructs her debut collection Chaotic Good (Faber) around the story of an escape from a toxic marriage. ‘Chaotic Good is a debut of amazing endurance,’ writes poet Will Harris. ‘Its formal pressures create a kind of kaleidoscopic intensity that – with each turn of the chamber – brings newly beautiful and painful shapes into focus.’ Isabelle Baafi was reading from her work in the company of Lavinia Greenlaw, whose most recent book is the essay collection The Vast Extent ." From 9 April 2025. Hear this podcast at: Isabelle Baafi & Lavinia Greenlaw: Chaotic Good | London Review Bookshop For lots of past videos and podcasts (not exclusively poetry) see: Podcasts & video | London Review Bookshop 23 ) (From The Poetry Programme - RTÉ Radio 1 (rte.ie) website) The Poetry Programme Though the show is sadly off-air now, the immense archive, from 2017 to 2022, is still available to listen to and is recommended. See The Poetry Programme - RTÉ Radio 1 (rte.ie) Also see Poetry File - RTÉ Podcasts (rte.ie) 24) (From Bad Lilies ) February 2025 Issue 20 "Bad Lilies is published six times a year and is edited by Kathryn Gray and Andrew Neilson . We aim to showcase the finest poetry, ranging in technique and subject matter." See the new issue here: Issue twenty — Bad Lilies 25) (From Granta website) Podcast | Alan Hollinghurst 'We discuss his new novel, writing from the outsider’s perspective and cataloguing the chapters of queer life from the mid-century to now.' Alan Hollinghurst has a close connection with the poetry world, and is an interesting person to listen to See Podcast | Alan Hollinghurst | Granta For the Granta podcast archive see: Granta | The Home of New Writing 26) Look around this site and follow some of the links you have not heard of before... 'Super. Keep looking down that long road.' 'Better Now Or Better Now Or Better Never?' by Julian Stannard. The Poetry Review Vol 111:2 Summer 2021 Top Twelve Poetry Headlines from the Web (Click to go to the online article) 1. 'I never saw writing as a viable career', says Wales' national poet - BBC News 2. Alice Notley (1945-2025) - The Allen Ginsberg Project 3. ‘What remains / are the poems, the songs / that mortality sings’: Griffin Poetry Prize winning poems 4. Bloomsbury wins eight-way auction for TS Eliot Prize-winner Joelle Taylor's new collection 5. Taking a stanza: The relationship between photography and poetry - 1854 Photography 6. Cultural hub for Leeds as poetry centre funding confirmed | University of Leeds 7. Dylan Thomas: Unseen photos show the poet in a fit of rage - BBC News 8. 80th anniversary of the death of renowned Polish poet Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska – A literary legacy linked to Blackpool 9. Ukraine in World Poetry Slam Championship for first time 10. First poet laureate appointed for Rochdale | Rochdale Borough Council 11. Poetry in motion: walking the new Wordsworth Way in the Lake District | Lake District holidays | The Guardian 12. Music, poetry, joy and laughter: the first Benjamin Zephaniah Day, in pictures | Brunel University of London All year in 2025 The following sites are worth checking regularly to look out for online and in-person poetry events . Cheltenham Poetry Festival Eventbrite Online Poetry Events | Eventbrite Eventbrite Online Poetry Readings Events | Eventbrite Evesham Festival of Words Griffin Poetry Prize - Upcoming Events Opportunities and services for poets and writers | Poetry Ireland What's On - Ledbury Poetry London Review Bookshop Milkweed Editions (U.S. Central time) National Poetry Library (For all currently open poetry competitions) Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts - Newcastle University (ncl.ac.uk) Nottingham Writer's Block: What's on Nottingham's writing world (mynottz.com) The Poetry Business - Digital Workshops Poetry Events in UK & Ireland | Facebook The Poetry Society - Events Top writing contests. (writingcompetitions.net) The following Groups offer regular online Open-Mics: Cheltenham Poetry Festival - Online Events and Poetry Lounges Fire&Dust Poetry | Twitter, Facebook | Linktree JournalExpressWrit - Open Mic (journalofexpressivewriting.com) (U.S.) Ó Bhéal - Fáilte go dtí Ó Bhéal (obheal.ie) (Republic of Ireland) Poetry Lit! - Online Reading Series Tickets, Multiple Dates | Eventbrite Rattlecast - Rattle: Poetry Speak the Word: online open mic night Tickets, Multiple Dates | Eventbrite Speak Your Truth ~ Spoke open mic Tickets, Multiple Dates | Eventbrite Wildfire Words Disclaimer: I have absolutely no connection with any of the sites reported above and only pass them on because they sounded interesting to me. I do not gain financially or in any other way from any of the sites I have offered links to. If the sites fail to deliver in some way, this will need to be taken up with that site. I cannot guarantee the safety of the sites I link to, though I do test every site out prior to listing it here; if you do follow the link you do so entirely at your own risk. So what I am saying is please don't sue me, or shoot me as the messenger, though I absolutely would love to hear any positive or negative feedback about any of the sites I link to. If you are the owner of a site that I have linked to and object to me including a link here please do let me know and I will remove it as soon as possible. Equally if you want to be linked then just ask and I will be very happy to do so. Most recent full update 8 June 2025. Last minor update 23 August 2025.

What about Bob? About Bob & Poetry I am Bob Dunning and I read and write poetry almost everyday. I find the internet very big, and this site aims to make it smaller, like a bookshelf that exclusively holds poetry, and poetry related books. I am very much learning as I go, and my approach to websites is to get it started and see what happens. It is more free form beat poetry than meticulous cynghanedd; and that is the first time I have ever used the word 'cynghanedd' (closely followed by the second). The website idea was first conceived on 1 April 2021, and launched on to the internet with minimal research on 8 April 2021 to an audience of one (me)! Please do get in touch to let me know ways in which you feel the site could be improved. I am also keen to report any websites, or links to poets, or online poetry news you may know about. The website has no ulterior motives, everything that appears here is purely presented for the love of poetry, and does not profit me in any way. Neither am I aiming to sell you anything. After lockdown, all the free time disappeared and this site went to sleep for a while. It has now re-emerged in a format that I hope will require less regular updating, but like the internet itself, the site is always open, and never far from a quick update if you want to get in touch. Please do get in contact and I will endeavour to reply pretty much the same day. I should add that I have absolutely no control over the contents of any of the links, so though I do try to do my best to ensure the links are good and healthy ones, people click to them and purchase anything available from them at their own risk. Biography: I have been reading and writing poetry on and off, since I was ten. I grew up in Maidenhead, and went to Desborough School there, though I have lived all my adult life in Leeds. I gained two different professional degrees, including a first, at (the now named) Leeds Beckett University. My first great poetry achievement was writing the nightly prayer for a Junior 3 class at St Joseph's School in Maidenhead (now called St. Edmond Campion). In the 1980s I also co-write lyrics for a single by the radio talk show host, James Whale, which reached about 120 in the charts - adjustment for local purchasing bias preventing an actual chart entry. Cruelly, or maybe thankfully, this achievement was uncredited on the single itself. One of my poems got into an Ilkley Festival online poetry magazine - alongside Simon Armitage no less, for which I can now find no evidence online, so for this and all the above previous 'achievements', you will just have to trust me, it is all true! More recently a number of my poems have been recorded and are available to hear on Bandcamp thanks to the wonderful collaboration with Nick Davidson's Thee Objects. Some of these poems were written for the project and others date back a number of years. Please follow the link on the foot of every page, and give the tracks a listen. I have been married 32 years, have two grown up children, and two grandchildren. I am a retired mental health nurse still living in Leeds. Most recent review of this page 10th August 2025. See Bob's Poetry Online The Poetry Archive 2021

Welcome to Bob's Poetry Page For ONLINE poetry links please Click Here Click Here For LIVE poetry events happening in the LEEDS area please See twenty poetry things that you could do TODAY! Enjoy your visit and do get in touch! Click Here

Leeds Stanza February 2025 choice : June Jordan 'Haruko/Love Poems' 'Haruko/Love Poems' by June Jordan The story of this book begins with me ordering a copy that was almost full price and sold as 'very good' but the condition was awful. I wrote to the company that I bought it from and demanded a rebate. In the mean time I thought I'd better get on and read it, or I wouldn't get it read in time for February's feedback. Truth is, I did not enjoy it at first. I found the poems so personal, but not universal. I mean fine if this poem had be written for me, as I would get the references and would love the attention. so, I began to consider the poems solipsistic, and only available in the book because of the reputation of the author, whom I have no doubt deserves her reputation, but her love poetry, really? There is nothing complicated about the language, there were no words to look up, but truthfully I just didn't get it. In the mean time the company who mis-sold me the book, were bartering with me saying they would return 30%, and I was thinking but my book is tatty, I'm not enjoying it, give me all the money back so I can get a new copy! It was water damaged, stained and had dints in the cover. I was hating the experience. Then, I read 'Poem For Mark' with its reference to the UK and its quaint 1950s Cockney language, and I smiled and I had a reference point. It occurred to me that I was not really getting into the mind of the author, and I needed to work harder at doing this. When 'Free Flight' came along she gives us the very workings of her mind at the moment the thoughts occurred to her. Then I understood all the poems more. I believe what we have is very raw poetry, not overly filtered and highly emotional, which on the one hand is the reason that, as a bloke, I'm not immediately going to get it, and I'm always going to have to work harder at love poetry. Then something else twigged. I love writing this sort of poetry myself, was I a little jealous that someone else had got there first, was getting published writing in a style that in fact I utterly relate to? I believe the poetry is much better read out aloud, it makes much more sense of the immediate simple rhymes, the illogical line breaks, and the easy language. She is in the poetry moment, somewhere closer to slam than Tennyson. It reads better out loud than read on the page. For me, anyway. I haven't tested this with watching videos of June Jordan reading her poetry, it just made sense to me as I progressed though the book. Then I got to my favourite poem, 'I Must Become a Menace to My Enemies', which uses powerful repetition and challenges you to not accept the horrors going on around you without letting others know that you do not accept it. This message is never irrelevant, but with the wars of Russia/Ukraine and Palestine/Israel so large in the news, and Donald Trump lording himself over the lot of it, I realise how little I dare to take sides in case I upset one or other of my friends at the expense of my own ideals. So by the time I got to the final epic poem 'Roman Poem Number Five' I was starting to feel the vibe. June Jordan is turning her inner experience into tangible poetry expression, and my biggest mistake is that I'm not doing the same. I went round the Cathedral of Barcelona recently, how come I didn't write a poem about my experience of it? In fact I will answer that. 1) I'm intrinsically lazy, and 2) I didn't know how. Read the book in front of you, Bob, this is how. Enter the moment and express it. This is what June Jordan is doing and I love her for it. So once I got to the final page, she had converted me. I was I love with her honesty and emotion and the whole book felt real. Then I thought, how can I get rid of this copy? How could I send it back? This very print, paper and glue got me right into the mind of another human being, and I want to savour that. I love my copy. Why exchange a lived-in book with damages that must have stories I need to invent and tell, with a starchy, dull, soulless brand new copy? I wrote to the sellers, and thanked them for the offer which had now been upped to a full refund, and said I was scared they would throw my copy away, and we should never throw anything away for simply not being perfect, after all, who of us is perfect? So I have kept my copy, and I will treasure the imperfect scruffy friend that helped me understand the wonderful June Jordan a little better.

'Read Me A Poem a Day' 9th April 2021 'Read Me A Poem a Day for the National Year of Reading.' Chosen by Gaby Morgan, pp 278-283. OK so why is a serious reader of poetry like me reading what looks like a children's book of daily poems. Well the answer is simple and quite clever. It is my doorway into starting reading. Some days, like today, I am just itching to read my next fill of Fran Lock poetry, but often I don't know where to begin, so I have my starter daily books. I began reading this book (and the Shakespeare) on 1 November 2020, which represents the first day of my retirement (two years earlier) . Every year I task myself with doing a certain number of hours of reading and I start the clock on this day. This book has been wonderful. In today's batch there was poems by Carol Ann Duffy, Grace Nichols, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jackie Kay, Langston Hughes, sat alongside a regular Anon. I had 6 days to catch up, as I had concentrated so much on writing the brand new website! That said, it only took a few minutes. I did a lot of poetry reading and listening from 2010 to 2014 (-ish), before deciding to knock it on the head to complete my pension. I have returned to reading now I am retired. Lockdown was awful, obviously. My father died from Covid-19 in March 2020 right at the beginning of it all. On the other hand, it helped me to concentrate my mind. As there was nowhere to go, I have found a place to be by reading poetry again. During that last poetry phase (there have been many but 2010-2014 was especially enjoyable) I got to see both Carol Ann Duffy and Jackie Kay. That's the wonderful thing about poetry compared with say, football or rock music, it is still relatively easy to not only see your heroes but also to go up and have a few words of chat with them afterwards! Jackie Kay's poem here is called 'Divorce' and in the wrong hands reads as a very dark tale of divorcing your parents. I am fairly certain Jackie Kay loved her adoptive parents, so perhaps this is intended as a cathartic tale where children can agree in their anger when reading the poem before bed at night only to wake up in the morning refreshed! 'Father, your breath smells like a camel's and it gives me the hump!' Seeing the Anons in this collection I always grieve for the lost name. How sad for the person that their immortalised words have become mortally detached. Here Anon is talking about an apple... 'It's nice to think, though many an eye Has seen the ruddy skin, Mine is the very first to spy The five brown pips within.'

The commission is an unusual beast, someone asks for a poem on a subject, the poet goes away and thinks about it and comes up with the goods. Today I heard Ian McMillan's poem for 'The Front Page' BBC Radio 4 programme. Asked to write about a poem for the Euro 2020 final the week before England played Italy, and lost on penalties, then delivering it week after. The poem is never going to T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland , but it did its job. I also understood it, and got it in one, unlike T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland , which I have heard many times, but in truth need academics to point out to me why it is good. In the poem, McMillan refers to Eliot, and as a reader it would enhance the experience if I knew the reference. (I didn't.). McMillan is a decent chap, he is not going to condemn me for not picking it up, but I should I condemn myself? There is so much poetry about, how can I know it all? As it so goes I have read a good deal of it, but when I am sat in a reading, am I supposed to bring my poetry history with me or simply enjoy the moment, are there two opposites, or have I constructed this myself? If I don't know my poetry history then I am freed from the challenge of acknowledging it? I know my music better, so in my world I would say - should a young rapper know the songs of Elvis and the Beatles, should they even know the history of the song the rapper may have sampled, or is it enough to know your own genre well, or even, then just live in the moment and enjoy the song? I find, a little like Classical music, there is an inbuilt elitism in poetry that is hard to shake off, even if the poet themselves tells you to shake it off. (And by Classical music I mean Mozart, Beethoven and that crowd, not Led Zep and Black Sabbath, which is how I hear the word being used now! Though, actually that has its elitism, too!) In spite of all this I can tell that McMillan's poem is no The Wasteland , so there is a difference, and getting back to the beginning commissions make for a very different, more accessible poetry. I guess this is because in this circumstance the poet is writing for the audience and not themselves. When I read Simon Armitage's Sandettie Light Vessel Automatic, a book filled with commissioned poetry I enjoyed it greatly, but ultimately it did leave me a little bit hollow by the end. What Armitage is so good at is writing in a poetic voice that is both authentic, and poetic, it feels like if you had sat down long enough thinking about it with a pen in your hand, you could have written it, too. This is a wonderful deception. As Poet Laurette, suddenly everything he writes feels like it is a commission, almost by the nature of the job. I have read his Lockdown Poem and watched the Lockdown film on television, both wonderful pieces of works, that describe explain Lockdown better than any documentary ever could. Poetry gets behind the mere facts and emphases the emotional, and though we believe we are a religion-less society, it speak in the language of our spiritual being, too. I notice, though that when presented to the World on the internet, the Lockdown poem is presented with a backbeat, and acted out images, and I wonder at the reason for this. Am I being elitist for noticing it, am I rejecting it? Or am I pleased that Armitage is doing his bit to bring poetry to the World in a populist way, surely another of the possible unwritten role of the Laureate's job. The film which intermingles poetry with talking heads, is perfect time capsule for the future. The individual stories of people affected by Covid-19, are emotional in themselves, woven into the overall arc of a poem provided by Armitage, they become a part of the poetic piece, and the emotion is turned up to 11 (a cultural reference I expect you to get, but if you don't it feels like I thought of the joke!). To help the watcher along two ethereal dancers interpret the parts where Armitage is talking as if to emphasise we are talking in poetry language now. A good trick, but once I spotted it I started to laugh at the thought that every time Armitage gives a reading in the real world two dancers would suddenly appear in the wings. Today I watched a poem which came to me via Facebook I believe, and I notice that the poet has put a backdrop of old film footage to enhance the film. I always wonder at this, it is almost as if the poet is concerned that the poem will not be entertaining enough in its own right, that there is an alternative show going on in case you don't want to listen to what's being said enough. It's a tremendous piece, as authentic as you get written by person from Glasgow, about what that experience is like. Such a great feat. Sadly no BBC4 commissions await for the poet, so we create our own film to be in. The commission as income, that's what it is there for and quite right. There is so much poetry about yet so few professional poets, it seems all wrong to the likes of me that love poetry, but look at me I prefer the free readings to the paid for ones, and I am a generous person.