When a young lady named May
Said, “its National Poetry Day Today”,
And I replied, “no, its tomorrow”,
She wept in such great sorrow,
That I said, “please, go away!”.
Awaking with the beautiful dawn
I gave a tremendous yawn,
And as I rolled over in bed
I with great pleasure said,
“Its nice to know you, Miss Dawn”.
On the evening of Sunday 29 September, I was privileged to meet Sally Walford and her partner in my favourite Bangladeshi restaurant.
I had seen Sally on several previous occasions. However I had not had the pleasure of conversing with her until Sunday evening.
I was intrigued to find that Sally is a children’s author and has published “The Clutter Monster”, The book description of which reads as follows:
“The Clutter Monster lives in the land of Mess, a monster who loves nothing more than very messy children and very messy playrooms.
This story for children , The Clutter Monster, tells the tale of one dark night when two messy children are spotted by The Clutter Monster.
Only The Decluttering Dog has the secret of how to make the Monster go.
Will he get to them in time to save their fate?
This delightful tale encourages children to tidy up their toys and keep on top of that clutter!”.
Whilst I haven’t read “The Clutter Monster”, I see from Amazon and Goodreads that the book has received a number of excelent reviews.
You can find out more about “The Clutter Monster” by Sally Walford here, https://thecluttermonster.com.
A young man named Steed
Having a very strong need,
Approached a girl called Nell
Who, I’m ashamed to tell,
Poured him some strong mead!
There was a young man named Steve
Whose habit it was to thieve.
He broke into the house of Hogg,
Who owns a fearce old dog,
And few people grieve for Steve!
When a young lady named Henrietta
Sent me an extremely rude letter,
I replied in a trice,
“That was not very nice,
And your spelling is atrocious, Henrietta!”.
A naughty young lady named Bella
Had more than just 1 fella,
But a bishop called Paul
Didn’t like that at all,
So saved her, by marrying Bella!
A young lady named Leigh
Is fond of erotic poetry,
Which she recites each night
By the moon’s soft light,
Whilst looking straight at me!
A young lady named Leigh
Is extremely fond of erotic poetry,
Which she writes each night
By the star’s bright light,
Whilst I’m hiding up a tree!
When a young lady whose name is Yvette
Said, “my hair is very wet”,
And I said, “come in from the rain”,
She replied with the greatest disdain,
“But then my hair would not be wet!”.
A kiss
Paid for
From a whore
May
Some say
Bring bliss.
Whilst the kiss
After dinner and fine wine
From a pretty maid
Is bliss
And you have not paid
For company,
Which is free.
An interesting post on the subject of book banning, https://ckbookspublishing.com/2019/09/27/book-banning-is-it-right/.
As someone who read history and politics at University College Swansea, I am aware of (and concerned by) works which deny (or greatly downplay) the horrors of the holocaust. Long before the rise of the internet, pamphlets such as “Did 6 Million Really Die?”, and “The Hoax of the 20th Century”, peddled the wholly erroneous and poisonous view that the Nazis had no plan to wipe out European jewry. However, since the birth of the World Wide Web books such as this (previously available in back street bookstores or via mail order only) can now be obtained with the click of a mouse. Indeed much of this material is freely available online.
In my view the best way to deal with such unhistorical rubbish is to shine the lense of truth on it, rather than ban such works. Whenever “literature” of this nature has been exposed to proper examination it has been revealed for the trash that it is, (see, for example the various court cases in which holocaust deniers have been proved to be peddlers of untruth).
Also, by banning an idea, one risks making it “sexy”, and one may (albeit unintentionally) help to foster the view that “the establishment” (whoever they may be) have something to hide. So no, book banning is not the answer.
Kevin
K Morris - Poet 