April is the cruellest, um, I mean poetry month. The internet is breaking out in ballads, getting drenched in doggerel, and lighting up with light verse.
Light verse is often set in opposition to “serious” poetry, an insubstantial bit of froth compared to the deep, intellectual, and meaningful efforts of Real Poets™.
“The interesting thing is that you don’t often meet a poet who doesn’t have a sense of humour, and some of them do keep it out of their poems because they’re afraid of being seen as light versifiers.” — Wendy Cope
The finest celebration of light verse I’ve read lately is Diary of a Somebody by Brian Bilston. This delightful slice-of-life mystery comic thriller holds a whole year’s worth of poetry which, in the words Bilston’s hated rival, Toby Salt, “lacks gravitas and soul”. But not even Salt could claim that Brian Bilston’s work lacks heart.
The book makes a lot of references, and there is a helpful list in the back in case you don’t recognise anything. The jokes are funnier if you spot the references, but I think most of them stand up quite well just on their own (well, maybe not 27th June).
Where is Toby Salt? Who is Liz interested in? What terrible secret is hiding in the shed? Will the man at No. 29 ever put his bins out correctly? All this, and plenty of light verse, in Diary of a Somebody.
Lesson: Don't let fear of ridicule stifle your voice.
