National Poetry Day

A cheery one from Pam Ayres

O Botox, O Botox, I'm ever so keen
To look like I looked at the age of sixteen
Induce paralysis, do as I ask,
Give me, O give me, a face like a mask

O take up a surgical bicycle pump,
And give me some lips that are juicy and plump
Young men will stagger and say 'Oh my God
Here comes Pam Ayres, and she looks like a cod'

I didn't know it was National Poetry Day, until a letter arrived this lunch time, with it stamped across the top!

Each to their own. Quite happy being a philistine. Much prefer a bit of Ogden Nash or Pam Ayers, something uplifting and silly.

Cheerful or what?

Here's one that GB read out by Christina Rossetti.

Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.

Scala Radio has Giles Brandreth doing poems from his new poetry anthology. I've listened for most of the morning while creating an elaborate curry that we enjoyed for lunch with DS.