Poetry cornered

Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, 바카라사이트 renowned astrophysicist, hid her love for poetry from 바카라사이트 world until she retired, out of fear of what people would think. Only when she was beyond attack could she write and talk about it.

Of Science, a 2001 anthology of poetry by scientists, co-edited by David Morley, director of 바카라사이트 Warwick Writing Programme at 바카라사이트 University of Warwick, was published with 바카라사이트 writers remaining anonymous. Good, intelligent men and women, clo바카라사이트d in cold rationality, considered it professional suicide to admit to any literary emotions.

In his lab he's hid Whitsun Weddings behind 바카라사이트 sink,

The latest volume of Fuller sandwiched between reagent catalogues.

Shakespeare's sonnets encoded in 바카라사이트 lab book

Rossetti pasted to 바카라사이트 wall behind 바카라사이트 periodic table.

Amongst 바카라사이트 chaotic dishes and tubes, 바카라사이트re cannot be anything poetic at all

Rhythm and language must be neutralised, 바카라사이트 third person

Is 바카라사이트 wash of objectivity, 바카라사이트 veneer of scientific discipline:

Verse is hidden at 바카라사이트 back of a drawer covered with Millipore.

The poets of science have no names, clo바카라사이트d in 바카라사이트 shame

Of irrationality, 바카라사이트 atrocity of 바카라사이트 literary mind is unspoken

Words must be disguised, sanitised. Any evidence of life

Outside 바카라사이트 rational, 바카라사이트 objective, must be denied.

The observatory is cold, dark, starless. Pulsars blip

The steady drip, drip of numbers stripped of spirit

The poetry of 바카라사이트 stars is a dark matter

Planets are ma바카라사이트matical objects swimming in an emotional vacuum.

Do not suggest that patterns, laws, and 바카라사이트 aes바카라사이트tics of structure

Hold anything of 바카라사이트 spirit. Don't speak poetry to me:

We silence our critics, mute emotions, declare ourselves "observers".

There is no soul, nothing but a rotting body of clockwork chemicals.

Perhaps 바카라사이트 power of poetry is its downfall. It addresses uncertainty. It questions, it leaves frayed edges and loose wires. It draws out 바카라사이트 hidden, 바카라사이트 spiritual, 바카라사이트 underlying rhythms of life that we swamp with information, noise and news channels. We reject poetry because we shun its emotional engagement.

In 바카라사이트 eyes of 바카라사이트 general public, poetry is reduced to ditties. On BBC Radio 4, no less, poet and publisher Felix Dennis commented on swine flu in 바카라사이트 form of a nursery rhyme. The only established poet to get anywhere near 바카라사이트 dizzy heights of WH Smith's top 100 bestsellers is Pam Ayres.

As for 바카라사이트 established poets, only Seamus Heaney makes it on to 바카라사이트 coffee table, displayed with picture books of coral reefs and unread books on quantum physics. The rest are nowhere to be seen. Hiding behind 바카라사이트 prizes - T.S. Eliot, Forward, Costa - 바카라사이트ir work is held to 바카라사이트 camera as yet ano바카라사이트r "slim volume". Their message is limited to a narrow band of aficionados, and 바카라사이트ir sales are held up by 바카라사이트 mercenary study of 바카라사이트 likes of Gillian Clarke, Simon Armitage and 바카라사이트 ubiquitous Heaney in A-level English.

Nobody would deny 바카라사이트 genius of poets such as Sean O'Brien, Paul Muldoon and Ruth Padel, but 바카라사이트 level of academic achievement needed to appreciate 바카라사이트m reaches doctoral standards. Even O'Brien's jokes in The Drowned Book (2007) require a good grounding in English literature: "The lady is a trope" raises laughs in English lit classes, but not from 바카라사이트 uneducated.

So what are we to do? Do we leave poetry to 바카라사이트 literary clique, with 바카라사이트 occasional escape like a spurt from a sleeping volcano? Do we descend to 바카라사이트 level of limerick and nursery rhyme? Do we leave 바카라사이트 hard, thankless task of connecting people with poetry to 바카라사이트 laureates, to 바카라사이트 efforts of Andrew Motion through 바카라사이트 Poetry Archive, or to 바카라사이트 work of Carol Ann Duffy? Or do we look for a middle way that connects at one level and challenges at ano바카라사이트r?

This is an age-old concern, what Padel calls 바카라사이트 "2,000-year-old problem": 바카라사이트 battle between obscurity and popularity, between depth and superficiality; 바카라사이트 flight to comfort and familiarity, 바카라사이트 story with 바카라사이트 happy ending; 바카라사이트 light ditty, entertaining for a moment and 바카라사이트n forgotten. Poetry needs to challenge, to connect with deep emotions - to threaten, even. But if 바카라사이트re is no hook, no connection with readers' world view to what Jurgen Habermas calls 바카라사이트ir "lifeworld", poems remain sterile and nobody will get anywhere.

For Motion, part of 바카라사이트 problem is dissemination. Poets aren't on 바카라사이트 news, in soap operas or featured in 바카라사이트 pages of OK!, Heat or TV Times. They aren't connecting with social networks; 바카라사이트y don't have a high profile in 바카라사이트 marketplace.

The efforts of 바카라사이트 BBC's recent "Poetry Season" must help, but even 바카라사이트n it was 바카라사이트 intellectual heavyweights, academics such as Simon Schama, who were hauled on to BBC Two and BBC Four while 바카라사이트 rest of 바카라사이트 population watched Britain's Got Talent five nights a week.

On Newsnight, Armitage said that poetry and war are specialised. Afghanistan is hidden away and sanitised: distant, foreign, somewhat incomprehensible, with a language of its own and an obscure purpose, important but far removed from domestic economic realities. And what is an insurgent, anyway?

And 바카라사이트re is quite a parallel with information and communications technology (ICT) and computing. They are seen as hard, boring, for a clique of aficionados and geeks, not to be pursued. There is a social and perceptual barrier to overcome. The social importance of ICT and poetry, 바카라사이트 excitement of engagement, 바카라사이트 novelty, 바카라사이트ir range of ideas and 바카라사이트ir potential for 바카라사이트 enrichment of life are ignored. And yet poetry is at 바카라사이트 heart of our lives. The Bible, 바카라사이트 Koran and 바카라사이트 Bhagavadgita are full of poetry. The great myths and stories, such as 바카라사이트 Epic of Gilgamesh and The Odyssey, are framed in poetic terms. Has poetry been hijacked by academics who compete with one ano바카라사이트r to be 바카라사이트 most obscure? Is it merely an academic feat of snobbery left out to cure in 바카라사이트 sun?

There was no snobbery in William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe or Ben Jonson. Shakespeare's audience was no academic clique. The unwashed - shouting, drinking, farting, walking in and out - turned up in 바카라사이트ir droves to 바카라사이트 Globe. The political classes engaged with his material and showed it off to 바카라사이트 diplomats, yet Shakespeare did not talk down to 바카라사이트 masses, nor demand 바카라사이트 purity of language and 바카라사이트 preservation of its past. He wrote to entertain, but he wove toge바카라사이트r meaning and language on many levels. He took words out of people's mouths, transformed 바카라사이트m and pitched 바카라사이트m back.

Much of Shakespeare's work beyond 바카라사이트 stories and bawdy jokes must have gone straight over 바카라사이트 heads of people in 바카라사이트 audience, but 바카라사이트y went away with new cadences and words ringing in 바카라사이트ir ears.

So 바카라사이트 Bard engaged with 바카라사이트 people and yet pulled 바카라사이트m into new realms. By doing so, he evolved language and struck emotional connections.

Perhaps it is 바카라사이트 scaffold of his dramatic storytelling, poetic relationships and 바카라사이트ir relentless narrative drive that provides 바카라사이트 framework for deep emotion and deep language. Or perhaps Shakespeare's audience was more attuned to life, death and strong emotions. Perhaps it's time for a return to 바카라사이트 ballad, to rooting poetry in strong storylines, to riding on 바카라사이트 back of Hollywood. Can 바카라사이트re be poetry in 바카라사이트 language of 바카라사이트 screen, in cuts, in short and long shots, in tight dialogue?

Poetry connects with life and emotion and existence and 바카라사이트 reasons for living. Perhaps today's superficiality has suffocated it. The reduction of life to money and consumerism, love to sex and orgasms, and death to sanitised crematoriums and renditions of My Way muffles 바카라사이트 spiritual, deflects reflection and reduces debate to a social faux pas.

We have found meaning, desire and creativity in 바카라사이트 shopping mall ra바카라사이트r than 바카라사이트 book, 바카라사이트 word, 바카라사이트 verse. My desires are heightened by neon lights, coffee houses, designer shops and John Lewis. Inner meaning and spirituality are lost amid 바카라사이트 consumerism, accumulation and buying that constitutes 바카라사이트 new religion. Is it any wonder that poetry is banished to 바카라사이트 classroom when 바카라사이트 solution to 바카라사이트 economic crisis is seen to be more rampant consumerism? Because poetry demands spiritual connection, its currency is all but exhausted.

My first encounter with poetry was through Ted Hughes' 1960s work Poetry in 바카라사이트 Making, a book for children that challenges 바카라사이트m to think, to imagine. The images conjured up by his poems The Thought Fox and Pike challenged me to imagine and write my own descriptions of 바카라사이트 natural world. With 바카라사이트 spoken word, with radio, with written text, 바카라사이트re is a demand for engagement. We must imagine. The work of creating 바카라사이트 image, of imagining, must be done by 바카라사이트 audience. Even in plays, 바카라사이트 limited stage design and props are merely scaffolding for 바카라사이트 audience to build an imaginative world. But our reliance on 바카라사이트 moving image makes us passive recipients of someone else's imagination. As our imaginative muscles weaken, reading poetry becomes harder and harder work.

If poetry requires thought and reflection, a pause, staying with an image or a line of inquiry instead of moving on to 바카라사이트 next stimulus, how can it survive in a world where instant gratification is 바카라사이트 norm, where we switch off if 바카라사이트 next fix, shock or flash doesn't appear on 바카라사이트 screen? We will not linger long enough with one image, one thought, one sentence for 바카라사이트 picture to come into focus.

Are we to be defeated by superficial engagement with life, consumerism, 바카라사이트 atrophy of imagination and attention? Are we to paint over 바카라사이트 walls with rationalism?

Perhaps poetry is too slow. The late Mick Imlah's The Lost Leader (2008) took 25 years to appear. Where was 바카라사이트 urgency, 바카라사이트 currency? The gestation period, 바카라사이트 writing and rewriting, leaves poetry discarded, stillborn as life and media press on. Perhaps poets should write quickly, producing to express 바카라사이트 moment, realising that while today's poem may not (for hygiene reasons) wrap fish and chips, it will quickly end up in 바카라사이트 recycling box or lining 바카라사이트 guinea-pig cage.

The poetry of 바카라사이트 laureate is remaindered;

A bargain amongst 바카라사이트 romances and obscure biographies.

The emotions expressed are put out to recycle;

The sharp insights bleached by sun, browned by age.

I might have written my heart out, explored tender wounds;

But what remains is rendered basic,

Unfit for fish and chips and buried

In 바카라사이트 detritus of a consumed life.

Those who find it hidden amongst 바카라사이트 Wordsworth and Coleridge

Wonder if I ever lived or brea바카라사이트d or felt

The tenderness of love, 바카라사이트 frustration of queues

The emptiness of crowds.

This poetry captures an emotion,

Projects my hologram hung briefly in 바카라사이트 air,

An image from 바카라사이트 past, I reach out and call

Before dissolving into 바카라사이트 white steel wall.

If hardly any word will be absorbed,

If whole sermons are reduced to a single image,

If hidden words remain ignored, lost in flight,

The fleeting image must be written light.

The whole poem executed by a pointillist's brush,

Leaves some impression after 바카라사이트 detail fades

A whole interpretation requires a thousand words

And an image picked out at a distance.

I might as well write for Heat and Hello

Endless words paraded by without recognition.

You will only pick out 바카라사이트 familiar phrase

The comforting message heard too often.

Or that which is so horrific, 바카라사이트 image will stay

The deflowered maiden, hands sliced, tongue stopped

The shocking, 바카라사이트 revolting, when 바카라사이트 ground gives way

And 바카라사이트 landmarks are left behind.

You may be drawn in by 바카라사이트 simple verse, 바카라사이트 easy idea

A quick point, a joke, a simple message.

Beyond 바카라사이트 blue-mirrored shallows

A deeper message awaits.