Poetry

It's all going to be OK.

Bolton aren't getting relegated this season, Swine 'Flu is just a bout of the sniffles, the economy isn't heading all the way down to zero, and the right woman got the Poet Laureate gig.

Sorry to keep banging on about Carol Ann Duffy. I just love the way she attempts to describe the indescribable by putting ordinary words together in artful ways. And now she's taken on a job that drove the previous holder of the office to write an ill-advised, poorly executed rap for Prince William on the occasion of his 21st birthday.

In honour of her appointment, I have written the following :-

Carol Ann Duffy, when you take on the laurel.
Please don't waste time finding rhymes for "Balmoral".

My favourite poem of all time wasn't written by her though. It was written by the Brazilian poet Pelé in 1970. Receiving the ball on the edge of the Italian penalty area, does he prosaically dribble between the centre backs and round the goalie ? No, he pauses and side-foots the ball to an obscure unoccupied piece of green by the touchline so that a Carlos Alberto-shaped blur could come from nowhere to bullet that ball into the net. The poem doesn't have a name, but I call it "Brazil 4 Italy 1".

Who says poetry has to be about words ?