The right level of mock earnestness and smugness

Those of us who know no other social media than the HG blog may have missed the rise of Twitter’s poet laureate, Brian Bilston. (Twitter is that social networking service on which users, such as Donald Trump, post messages known as “tweets”.)

I did have a Twitter account once. I suppose I still do, though I haven’t used it in years. No, my introduction to Mr. Bilston’s poetry came via my usual and reliable Sunday morning technology, the radio.

“Poetry is a broad church and it can accept all sorts of forms.”

You may not all be as devoted to the CBC or The Sunday Edition as I am, but I encourage you to read Michael Enright’s interview. Even better, listen to the podcast (you’ll have to fast-forward to the 1:09:23 mark).

In the meantime, here’s a taste to get you primed:

Smoking Jacket

He got himself a smoking jacket;
he thought it would amaze her.

But she just put a match to it
and it turned into a blazer.

Or, how about:

Grammar Police

the grammar police got him
split his infinitive
removed his colon

left him there.
comatose
next day he was pronouned dead

The entire CBC article is posted at https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thesundayedition/the-sunday-edition-for-october-20-2019-1.5325821/brian-bilston-may-be-the-banksy-of-poetry-1.5325832.

Enjoy.