by Ethel Smith

Created on: January 17, 2009   Last Updated: January 18, 2009

I guess poetry is a little like Art. Well, strictly speaking, I suppose poetry is an art form, but I mean the type of art that is often framed and displayed for all to see. The main similarity is that you either get it or you don't. We have all seen so called works of art, that experts have marvelled over, only to look at this same work just to wonder what the hell it is supposed to be about. In the same way poetry is a grey area and hard to define. Overall, though, I think if a piece of writing strikes you as poetry, when you read it, then it is.

The people who dabble in writing poetry come from all walks of life, and always have. In most people's mind's eye the picture of a poet used to be someone a little airy fairy, theatrical, overdressed and overblown. We imagined these people wandering around writing down meaningful prose and not really belonging to the real world. However, especially, these days this is far from the truth. Poets come in all shapes and sizes, just like their poetry. Classical poets such as Wordsworth are still read today and in many ways their work is timeless. I guess this is because sometimes the nostalgia fits well with poets and poetry.

My favourite poets though tend to be the humorous ones. My favourite two are Ogden Nash and the writer of nonsense rhymes, Edward Lear. I guess it is testament to these poets that if I was asked to quickly recall a poem I liked it would either be Ogden Nash's:-

Some primal termite knocked on wood

and tasted it and found it good,

and that is why your Cousin May

fell through the parlour floor today.

Written from memory I may have slightly misquoted but I doubt it. Then again there is Edward Lear's classic:-

The owl and the pussycat went to sea,

in a beautiful pea green boat,

they took some honey and plenty of money

wrapped up in a five pound note.

Of course this poem has many more verses but, that first one, is the one that is etched on my brain. It does make you wonder though what the poets intentions were in writing such poems. Was the purpose to make the reader smile?. Was it done to ridicule the art of poetry?. No-one will ever know but I like to think that it was to make the reader smile, as much as for any other reason.

The British comedian Spike Milligan wrote some weird and wonderful poetry, which, like his humour, was very zany. Of course the man and his work did not appeal to everyone but I loved everything about him. The fact that he had more than his fair share of demons to fight just made him so human.

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