The Power of Poetry with things falling apartand anarchy let loose, it was only poetry, he found,which had any use, so he reached for his copy of The Complete Works of Yeats and bludgeoned the Presidentof the United States
poetry
Mnemonic Thirty days hath September,April, June and November.Unless a leap year is its fate,February hath twenty-eight.All the rest hath three days more,excepting January,which hath six thousand,one hundred and eighty-four.
My Year in Diets Veganuary Fibreuary Starch Cakepril MaycaroniCheese June&tonic Julicecream Augustickytoffeepudding Septembeer Octoblerone Doughvember Decemburger
New Year Office Chitchat How was your Christmas?you ask and I think ofthe bloodstained rug and the silent scrapingof the spade in the gardenat midnight and the wash washwashing of my hands and the dreams,those endless dreams which hauntthe night-time and smudgetheir thumbprints on the dayto come and I replySuper, thanks. Yours?
Prayer for Uninteresting Times Send me a slow news day,a quiet, subdued day,in which nothing much happens of note,save for the passing of time,the consumption of wine,and a re-run of Murder, She Wrote. Grant me a no news day,a spare-me-your-views day,in which nothing much happens at all,except a few hours togethersome regional weather,a day we can…
My Unbearable Politeness of Being It’s the same dilemmaevery year, I find,upon meeting a personfor the first time, for how longdoes wishing thema Happy New Yearremain de rigueur? Perhaps I blow thingsout of proportionbut I tend to erron the side of caution so I’ve alwaysHappy New Year-eduntil October the Third.
This was the year that was not the year This was the year that was not the year I repaired the bathroom tap and emptied out the kitchen drawer of a lifetime’s worth of crap. This was the year that was not the yearin which I launched a new career. A West End hit eluded me as did Time Person…
Resolution Having failed to keepA new year’s resolution forPretty much ever, this year I resolve toPlay it safe. The trick is to knowYour limits. Keep it simple. Now what I resolve to do is toEschew a poetic form. Abstain fromWriting an acrostic for a whole Year. A resolution, I think,Easily done. Eminently achievable.A piece of…
I’m heading off on tour next year with a brand new solo show, in which I’ll be reading poems from my forthcoming book ‘How to Lay an Egg with a Horse Inside’. The tour starts in September. Tickets have gone on sale at most venues today. You can find out more here: https://brianbilston.com/events/ I’ll be…