I realize that for most people poetry is something they force you to read in school. But for me this is something special.
"It is a great day for women writers," said Duffy, who described the laureateship as "tending the flame" of poetry. "It highlights the way that women writers have changed the landscape of literature in this country … though I think guys will be pleased as well."
And I sure am.
Not just because Carol Ann Duffy is a woman and a lesbian....and was born in the roughest slum in Glasgow.
Or because I find some of her poems sharp, funny, and brilliant.
Or because she would have been appointed Britain's poet laureate long ago...if the Bush/Pope poodle Tony Blair hadn't fretted and fussed about how she would play in "Middle England."
But also because, as Brecht says in my sidebar, I'd probably spend more time writing poems than blogging..... if the world wasn't so full of homophobes and other bigots. And Stephen Harper wasn't Prime Minister.
Unfortunately I have no talent, so my poetic career so far amounts to bad imitations of other poets from Shakespeare to Lorca .... and two years ago even a little Duffy.
Sébastien was away in the Congo, working with a relief agency. And I was at home paralysed with fear about what could happen to him in that dangerous country.
"I've covered his pictures with dish rags. I don't even want to think about him. I bury his memory in blogging words that I don't even read. But at night in my naked sleep he's always THERE. Sitting on the bed the cheeky bugger. Counting the freckles on my face.
I look away and pretend I can't hear him. But he tickles me and I awaken laughing. So now I know what I must do to forget him. Now I know the true meaning of despair. Love is turning me into a WANKER. And I don't care."
OK OK I warned you. If I was Carol Ann I'd sue me.
But after 341 years a woman is the Poet Laureate of Britain.
Isn't THAT about time?
A woman and a lesbian.
Isn't that GRAND?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
P.S. Now that you know I'm a lousy poet....did you know I'm thinking of becoming a karaoke star?
And I do this song really well....
You are what you dream you are eh?
Carol Ann Duffy ROCKS.
Have a great weekend everyone !!
