National Poetry Day was officially held at the end of August, and recognised in Martinborough with ‘Rhyme Time’ at the library, led by John Ansell and Shirley Nightingale. A small but enthusiastic audience enjoyed and interacted, to the extent that one participant raced home to get his trusty guitar and entertained us with a couple of ballads, which are in essence poems set to music (rhyming of course). Between poems we discussed lyrics, music, rhyme, rhythm, and the joy of words in this extraordinary language of ours with its confusions, idiosyncrasies, richness and diversity.
In honour of John, Shirley, poetry, and language, I offer a modest piece of verse, taking on board John’s dictum that “writing poetry without rhyme is like playing tennis with the net down”.
John is a writer of poems,
His verse rolls along like a dance.
He reads it with ease
And great expertise
Not one single word is by chance.
John is a masterful wordsmith,
With vocab both rich and wide-ranging.
A magician with words
They soar like the birds
And his wit is immensely engaging.
Shirley reads verse with great vigour,
Her joy in it easy to see.
Her taste is eclectic
And sometimes electric
When raunchy she chooses to be.
So for poetry, language and humour
Depend on these two to be there.
Locally famous
And frequently shameless
They are Martinborough’s word-famous pair.
Rachel McCahon – Martinborough Star Poet Lauriet
Photo captions : John and Shirley reading their poems
