National Poetry Day

Is there an obligation on National Poetry Day

To write something important, to have something to say,

For, after all, the nation is looking on in awe

Waiting for the bon mot or even something more

Profound or original, a satire on the way

That Poetry is so ignored it needs to have a day

For media types to all pretend that it is quite important

And has some value in our lives, even when it oughtn't

Because, while it is useful for advertising things

For jingles on the radio or supermarket rings

It's never really serious, and if it is of course

We won't understand a word of what the poet taught!

So all hail unto today and all its doggerel rhymes,

Tomorrow it can be forgotten, until the Christmas chimes

Need sentimental verses to fill out the Christmas cards

And all the verbal diarrhoea goes on for yards and yards

Until, with thanks for New Year, the recycling vans appear

To trash the lot, and bring relief - if only till next year.

Brian Hick

©copyright 2021 S Hick