Laureatically Speaking

As the Day approaches when Andrew Motion and his notebook will no longer be welcome at the Palace to drink tea and discuss, rhyme, meter and metaphor and how it applies to the modern Royal Family, there is much speculation as to whom the role will be awarded to next.

William Hill’s odds for the next Laureate can be found here, there is a campaign to ensure that the next laureate is a female and Wendy Cope still has high odds despite the fact that she has scorned the role itself and said that she would not accept it if it was offered…

So as L-Day approaches and the excitement reaches fever pitch, due to an unprecedented state of affairs existing, never has a fixed term Laureate come to the end of the tenure. Before Mr Motion, the reason you left the Laureateship was when you breathed your last, but when Mr Motion leaves he will be breathing and I hope this is the case for many years to come…

So what do I want to happen? Well, I would like them to update the position so that the future Laureate will be an ambassador for British poetry as a whole, not just someone who tosses off the odd rhyme for a family that anyone would find it hard to write about, but that is not going to happen. So I would like it to go to Roger McGough, I think he deserves it, he is a wonderful word-juggler who would do the role justice and he is the reason, probably, that I write poetry. (Although this in itself is not reason to give it to him.)

But I do not just want it to be awarded to him, I would like a chain of events to take place that sees Roger McGough receive the award.

In 1999 Tony ‘Part of the Rock’N’Roll Generation’ Blair, did not want Carol Ann Duffy to be Laureate because, of her sexuality, so I hope she is offered the post and she tells them that, ‘You didn’t want me last time so Sod off.’. Then it is awarded to Wendy Cope who tells them, ‘Did you not hear what I said?’ and then after much embarrassment, they decide to offer it to Mr McGough who was the best person for the role in the first place…

Apparently Carol Ann Duffy has been offered the role so we will see…

Collection of Nonsense/Comic Verse Available

Hi,

A new collection of Comic/Nonsense Verse, For Children, called, ‘Please Do Not Encourage This Nonsense by Purchasing this Book: Poems By Paul H. Tubb’, is available for purchasing.

23 Poems Not about Football, 11 that are about Football and 5 limericks. Paul H. Tubb has put these together, with some illustrations, into a handy book form so that they can be read at anyone’s leisure. Funny Rhyming poems that will delight Children of all ages. Poems about subjects such as Strange Christmas’s, Tone Deaf Dentists and the worlds worst stuntman among others. To learn more, please click on the link below.

America the Poetic.

America land of freedom, Dreams, Root Beer and Poetry…

That is correct, April is America’s National Poetry month and if I may say so, it seems that this would be a great opportunity for Americans, with Children or a sense of humour, to make a purchase of my collection of poetry mentioned here, and it can be purchased here.

But that is enough marketing and attempted selling from me, I’d like to talk about America and American poetry to commemorate National Poetry month. I love America, it has to be said. I love America and Americans so much, that I married, and remain happily married to, one… Obviously I’m not going to love all Americans a country that size is not going to produce 100% wonderful people, but within my family and during my 5 trips so far to America I have never met one I didn’t like… Even the Barman in ‘Buddy Guy’s Legends’ who demanded a tip from me, I hold no grudges to, or the old woman who blatantly took a cab that I had stopped whilst in New York, I can but admire her nerve…

But I am digressing, I would like to talk about American Poetry… America has produced many of my favourite poets, there is the obvious influences, Ogden Nash, Theodore Giesel, Phyllis McGinley, Tim Burton, then there are the others, Edgar Allan Poe, T.S. Elliot, Dorothy Parker and many others… There are also many Humorists from America, whom I love, that have dabbled in poetry like, Garrison Keillor and Mark Twain. It is a dream of mine to go to America and read my poetry to Children there, something I would love to achieve sooner rather then later, but I can wait. One of my favourite places in America is the Barnes & Noble at the, ‘Arena Hub Mall’ in my wife’s native town of Wilkes-Barre PA. It’s a huge bookstore full of books and CD’s and there is a Starbucks there, what’s not to like? Many a time I have been deposited there, whilst my wife and her mother go and shop or some other activity that does not require me. I would love to spend a sustained amount of time there reading my poems to a, hopefully, receptive audience.

So although I do not live in America, and therefore it is technically not my Poetry month, I still wish all Americans a happy poetry month and I will in, essence, be celebrating Poetry and especially American Poetry this month.

And I shall finish with a little tale about America, me and one of my favourite American Poets… Whilst on a trip to New York in December 2004, I decided, as I was in New York, that I would try and purchase some Ogden Nash… Shockingly I went to about 8 shops and could not find anything by Ogden Nash, it seems that New York was Bereft of Ogden Nash poetry… How is this possible? One of many humorists associated with the great New Yorker magazine and he was not to be found anywhere… I even went into a Barnes & Noble and asked the store assistant who, had never heard of him and who when I asked if she would search, she entered in ‘Augden Nash’ into the search engine…

Hopefully there are many Americans enjoying poetry in USA this month and many New Yorkers given the opportunity of reading Ogden Nash…