tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5299780.post6862851684395233302..comments2024-03-01T10:54:42.126+00:00Comments on The Willesden Herald: Gravitas proposes a Poetry TaxOssianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12095236313068093836noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5299780.post-27376122659738526022010-08-04T20:01:48.168+01:002010-08-04T20:01:48.168+01:00Sorry if this is off-topic but does anyone have th...Sorry if this is off-topic but does anyone have the words of "There was an old woman of the roads"? It's the only poem I ever liked. Pardon my ignorance, I left school when I was 10 but I've always remembered Mr Walsh making us recite that poem. And if we got it wrong it was the bamboo cane on bottom, god forgive me. Hope you're all well. I'm still pottering away at the clerical outfitting. Reminds me I must go and get Fr Santos' inside leg measurement for the black slacks. (c) Mrs HavertyMrs Haverty clerical outfitters and nylon factorsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5299780.post-41657819501878620132010-08-04T18:44:28.157+01:002010-08-04T18:44:28.157+01:00Mrs Mundie and her ilk make me sick, quite frankly...Mrs Mundie and her ilk make me sick, quite frankly. After 13 years of New Labour misrule haven't we had enough of special pleading and funding for people and groups which are without doubt responsible for their own misery, and, in the case of poets, responsible for the misery of those who are unfortnate enough to give them or their product the time of day.<br /><br />Mrs Mundie's idea of spending hard-working taxpayers' money on - and she was right in this assessment - navel-gazing wretches, is ludicrous. <br /><br />To these poets themselves my advice would be to damn well pull yourselves together. We are a long time dead so for God's sake bloody well cheer up.<br /><br />Thank you.Michael Abanjohttp://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16222noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5299780.post-5349046280240655102010-08-04T18:28:34.057+01:002010-08-04T18:28:34.057+01:00Wouldn't that penalise the sad, self-obsessed ...Wouldn't that penalise the sad, self-obsessed and/or melancholic though? These people who write this almost entirely dreadful stuff are surely already in dire straits and to inflict on then what would be in effect a fine for what is clearly an affliction seems unfair in a rather Tory way. Surely these people need treatment rather than pauperising.<br /><br />Please withold my name. My own husband is a 'writer' of sonnets and is in denial insofar as he won't face his illness, like so many of these wretched solipsistic sorts. Drug use has now been recognised as an illness and I would plead that poetry be similarly treated. In my view Gravitas's proposal will simply drive these poor wretches underground and they will in any case avoid the tax by signing their navel-gazing dross as Anonymous. Far better that we should know who they are, identify their obsessions from their rhymes and (worse) 'free verse' and get them help. <br /><br />Gloria Mundie (Mrs)Name and addess withheld by requestnoreply@blogger.com