麻豆约拍

From Canon Ann Easter, Chaplain to the Queen:

I'm intrigued by the idea of our having a Radio 2 Poet in Residence - but, of course, it's not the first time we've had poetry on the Morning Show; back in the days of dear Sir Terry Wogan, his TOG's - Terry's Old Gals and Geezers - were forever writing odes, and someone wrote one for me. It went

听

'I've fallen in love with Ann Easter

She's one of my favourite Vicars

I'll leave my fianc茅

And give up 叠别测辞苍肠茅

For a chance to get into her good books..........!!'

听

I thought I didn't know much poetry but when I started to think about it, poetry's all around us; my grandparents taught me nursery rhymes that I now say to make my grandchildren laugh and I'm often asked to read a much-loved poem when I conduct a wedding or a funeral service - who could forget WH Auden's heart rending 'Stop all the clocks' 听that was used in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral.

听

The careful choice and placing of words, together with the rhythms they make, is what makes a poem and, in the very earliest days of humanity, that memorability of poetry was used very deliberately as a way of passing on important stories and legends to future generations. Some poems were shaped into folk songs as a tune helps to make words even more memorable - and that goes on to this day, when rapping is used as a rhythmic and rhyming way of making a point or a protest.

听

And poetry takes the ordinary and mundane and enables us to look at them from a different angle - think of Pam Ayres with her 'I wish I'd looked after me teeth'; there's a rueful laugh in that poem but we recognise a ring of truth too.

听

In church we use loads of poetry, some from the Bible, the psalms, for instance, are full of rich imagery 听like 'The Lord is my Shepherd' and some poems come in the form of hymns; that way, poetry helps us to put the truth of God's love into shapes we can recognise and remember.