What is the purpose of poetry? According to Poetry.org it’s “an art form in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content.”
For most of us, most of the time, that means some kind of rarefied condensation of elegant linguistics. Just occasionally it means the opposite. Sometimes there’s a bait and switch (Adrian Mitchell’s “Celia, Celia”, for example). However it works, the reader should find a new experience of something.
On which note, a response to recent media nonsense:
A paean to respected journalist1 Katie Hopkins upon the election of Sadiq Khan as Mayor of London, May 2016.
London eagerly anticipates your appearance
naked, sausage wedged up yer bum.
We’ll hang our best bunting
or – better – bright cunting
(gay panties on strings just for fun).
Here’s to our great British banger,
boldly going where your brain-waves are sourced;
artisan offal;
indelibly awful;
there’s a queue standing by with brown sauce.
1Donald Trump, 2015
Fox Unkennelled - Myfanwy Fox 