Just been reading a Tweet from @PoetrySociety ( Don't know if I agree? http://bit.ly/49g56d )& it's associated links about the BBC Poetry Season. First of all, I am not resident in the UK and so I didn't get to see much of this. But what I did see of it, and what I heard of it via articles, radio programs and various people blogging it appears to me that it fell into the usual traps.
It seems to have taken the "Poetry is Dying and Obscure and the man in the street hates it or doesn't understand it or it is simply irrelevant" - tack and then tried to do it's bit to resuscitate the patient with a desperate application of jump leads and celebs visiting to make comforting noises.
Here's what I would have done if I had been in charge of BBC Poetry Season:
A program about nursery rhymes and their origins - with children reciting and singing old favourites and introducing some new ones.
Followed up with an invitation to the public to come up with new rhymes for the current age and with a prize for age groups 0-5, 5-12,12-16,16-25, and over 25's. The winners to be picked by primary schools and then a short program made with the winners introducing their rhyme and children performing them.
A program about folk songs and their origins. Again with folk groups performing them, again with an invitation to the public to submit their own folk songs and again a program to enjoy the winners/selection of submissions.
A program about 'found poetry' - the amazing phenomena of pieces of poetry that appear unintended in prose, speeches, lists almost anywhere that words congregate. Examples, maybe trot a few celebs out to explore this in an amusing and entertaining manner.
Invite the public to participate by phoning in/submitting pieces of 'found' poetry - selection to be be read out and maybe prizes, maybe phone in to judge the 'best'/'most amusing'/'most profound'.
A program about funny poetry. Including Ogden Nash, Hilaire Belloc, Ronnie Barker, Morecambe & Wise, Limericks, rhymes that were spontaneously produced in various radio 4 shows such as "I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue" - including some of the very amusing poetry by contemporary comedy poets such as Pam Ayres et al
Followed by a competition to encourage the public to write their own funny limericks and submit them etc etc
You can see a pattern here?
Maybe a program taken from the psychology of poetry and rhyming. Why are rhymes so instinctively satisfying? Why are some poems more satisfying without? A discussion/debate about whether rhyme is best or not. A phone in for the public to say whether they prefer rhymes or not.
In my opinion - most people DO like poetry. Just as most people like eating. But maybe they don't like what is served up to them and prefer the home made stuff, or something from their preferred flavour provider?
Perhaps poetry is not dying at all, but maybe there are less people prepared to pretend to like obscure, self referencing, rarified stuff? Maybe there are too many people these days happy to shout loud and clear that the king has no clothes on?
