A Bone of Contention

I think the poet in question's sleeves are voluminous enough to pull out enough tricks to surprise us all. Best not to put people in squeaky, narrow boxes but watch and enjoy as they spread their wings.

Well done, class! Top marks to Master Andrew Pack at the back. He writes great essays and makes very good comments. Of course, there's room for all kinds of writing. It is a joyful pursuit whether one writes poetry or prose. As for the defector - she is accomplished in both fields, and will, I hope, soon receive the recognition she deserves. As for Julie Andrews, I want a hundred lines on my desk tomorrow morning. Class dismissed.

on their way as we speak sir

i think having a crack at the other side is always good for improving what you think youare best at. a familiarity with economy helps you out with stories and especially narrative, while the vocabulary and interesting story demands goes some way to defamiliarising poetry and getting rid of automatisation in the language.

......... ford ev'ry stream follow ev'ry byway till you find your dream. A dream that will last for as long as ..... eeek! not sure if the poet in question has a pedestal. in fact rumour has it she is most unsung in terms of cake of the week. a few words of description: witty,serious,rude,funny,hilarious,clever,intelligent,great poet (if you like that sort of rubbish). Oh, did I mention Modest?

Oh it's sea-scouts of the Petrel... My previous comments still stand. A spoonful of sug-ar helps the metaphor go down, the metaphor go down. And now I must go, to take down notes from the Story Scorpion (a distant cousin to the Poetry Poodle) - all of his stories have a sting in the tail...

Perhaps Julie's post was a bit confusing Andrew (no pun intended!). It should have been made clearer. The pedestal sentence should be on it's own. (coz I, perhaps erroneously, thought you had wrongly identified the poet.) The final part is unconnected to the pedestal sentence and was not aimed at anybody or anything. Simply my way of saying that the poet in question never shouts about how good she is and has, to the best of my knowledge, yet to feature on the weekly cake platter. :->

would that be a fishcake, Petrel?

verily, M'lad softcake

Would that be the young gal I doffed my hat to in Ta Chucks one fine evening? If I recall correctly she is rather partial to citrus fruits and sloe gin. I would have thought that by now she'd have drummed up enough kudos to be given her own cakeshop.

methinks it's EEC directives Audenary. olde cake shoppes merrily abandoned for continental cuisine emporia. olde cake shoppes merrily abandoned for continental cuisine emporia. olde cake shoppes merrily abandoned for continental cuisine emporia. Forsooth and apologentia to ye Audenary. Brussels make me repeat.

'The poet is like a prince in the clouds, who rides the tempest and scorns the archer. Exiled on the ground, amidst boos and insults, his giant's wings prevent his walking.' - Charles Baudelaire

Don't see what all the fuss is about, really. There's room for both, surely?

And in a sense, it is an academic question, since the writer in question already does write prose - and it happens to be very good. Although I still have a fondness for the poem called Drawing Snakes, which has a wonderful cameo by an egg sandwich. From a practical point of view, poems take less space and people don't continually ask you - so this thing you're writing, what's it going to be about ?

'Oo'se calling me prose 'Muddy Gutters?' Thought he was a blues bloke... Oh no, that was Muddy Waters, sorry...

Shouldn't that have been 'o's ? Who's? Whose? Sorry Eric's...

think Muddy Gutters must be a tribute singer

*puts hand up* umm ... sir??? ... have been thinking and well you know dancing is all very nice and all that ... enjoyable and whatnot ... and useful if you find yourself at a family wedding ... but really sir ... walking gets you from A to B ... walking is USEFUL ...

I've never been very good at dancing, although I do enjoy the occcasional bop, but walking.....well I thought I wasn't too bad at that .....the odd stumble perhaps. I could live without dancing, but walking is as vital as breathing. And from time to time, as I walk along life's broad and cluttered highway I do perhaps make a few dancing steps, a swirl, twirl, here or there, a little jig as I plod onwards.

Accountants are useful Paperclips are useful Manure is useful but they are boring boring boring now, dancing... that's entrancing

not when my dad does it

I guess most of you know which side of the fence I fall on in relation to this argument. Poetry is harder to do, because you need to worry about how it scans and sounds rather than whether it flows. I described it to Mark YB as the difference between opera and pop in a karoake bar - everyone can have a stab at I will survive, but wouldn't be able to even begin to sing an aria, which requires much greater technique and insight. But, isn't poetry a little bit limiting ? I mean, it has its strengths in that it condenses something into one moment of importance, trims away all the fat and leaves just the essence of how something felt and seemed - but I quite like the fat, digression and irrelevance are what makes the world worthwhile. And you can't really digress in poetry - or if you do, you miss the point. If, as I suspect, this defector has a pedestal, then go to it. Her poetry is excellent, but her prose might be even better.