I have for a long time enjoyed listening to ‘Poetry Please’ on Radio 4. I particularly love listening in the garden, whilst working on the borders in the Summer months, for example.
Not all the poetry is to my taste and a big chunk of it is ‘poetry learned at school’ as requested by members of the listening public – but it is all read so beautifully and there’s a wide choice, so get to hear poets and poems that I have haven’t yet read. There are numerous publications – I googled and discovered there’s now a CD which was released for an anniversary, which may just slip onto my Amazon Wish List!
‘Poetry Please’ is not currently on the schedules, (so I can’t send you to a ‘listen again’ link) but then presenter, Roger McGough, he of Lily the Pink and Scaffold fame, is busy taking on a new responsibility.
The Poetry Society has been having some serious problems recently, with resignations and the like… so much so that the Arts Council withheld the grant for July! But now Roger McGough has stepped into the breach and here he is interviewed. He says,
“…if you wonder why people asked me to do the job, the answer, is I’m the soft option. The people’s choice, if you like.”
I think he’s an excellent choice!
When asked whether poetry as an art form still has any relevance in the 21st century, he replies in this manner:
“Oh definitely”, says McGough, after one of his thoughtful pauses. “To me, a poem is still a magical thing; I never know where it comes from, but what I do know is that, at its best, poetry can make us all feel part of each other; it can remind us to care.”
I have been a member of a local Stanza group for a while now. (Stanza poetry groups are affiliated with the Poetry Society and are run by a member of the society, but you don’t have to be a Poetry Society member to be part of a Stanza!)
I had been put off joining the Poetry Society, having heard about all their upsets. However, spurred on by this new appointment I joined the Poetry Society a few days ago, and discovered a Poetry Society facebook page which I also joined…. and when I came home today I found a series of delightful links to readings via the Guardian newspaper app on facebook. If you are a facebook member it is well worth having a look.
Photograph: Murdo Macleod, on the Guardian site
The article says of Roger McGough, ‘he carries his Liverpudlian accent very lightly: less heavy-duty Scouser, more mellow Mersey.’
I look forward to Mr McGough finding time to host ‘Poetry Please’ again, so I can hear his Liverpudlian tones and his quiet amusing anecdotes. Then I can enjoy myself for half an hour, what ever else is going on, listening to something that can ‘make us all feel part of each other.’
Boadicea's Chariot 
A very imaginative and erudite man. Long may he grace our frequencies.
OZ
I’m a fan of Roger too. I must say, I share your reservations about the Poetry Society, Nym.
Yes, OZ, I agree.
Ara, let’s hope it sorts itself out now?
(I’m having a crisis of confidence about my apostrophe….)
Oh, looks OK to me, Nym.
I recall Roger’s ‘pop’ appearances many years ago (is it 45?). He became a ‘street poet’, with imaginative rhymes about daily life – a wake-up contrast to so much well-known poetry. He’s perhaps not as ‘dangerous’ as he once seemed but quite a performer!
I do not know Roger Mcgough, but I do enjoy poetry. A couple of weeks ago I came across a second hand copy of Ogden Nash’s collection entitled ‘The Private Dining Room’, which I snapped up. I do love his witty themes and clever rhyming.
The Swan
Scholars call the masculine swan a cob;
I call him a narcissistic snob
He looks in the mirror over and over
And claims to have never heard of Pavlova.
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ogden_Nash
The Private Dining Room
Miss Rafferty wore taffeta,
Miss Cavendish wore lavender.
We ate pickerel and mackerel
And other lavish provender,
Miss Cavendish was Lalage,
Miss Rafferty was Barbara.
We gobbled pickled mackerel
And broke the candelabara,
Miss Cavendish in lavender,
In taffeta, Miss Rafferty,
The girls in taffeta lavender,
And we, of course, in mufti.
Miss Rafferty wore taffeta,
The taffeta was lavender,
Was lavend, lavender, lavenderest,
As the wine improved the provender.
Miss Cavendish wore lavender,
The lavender was taffeta.
We boggled mackled pickerel,
And bumpers did we quaffeta.
And Lalage wore lavender,
And lavender wore Barbara,
Rafferta taffeta Cavender lavender
Barbara abracadabra.
Miss Rafferty in taffeta
Grew definitely raffisher.
Miss Cavendish in lavender
Grew less and less stand-offisher.
With Lalage and Barbara
We grew a little pickereled,
We ordered Mumm and Roederer
Because the bubbles tickereled.
But lavender and taffeta
Were gone when we were soberer.
Sipu, 🙂
Excellent.