WORLD POETRY DAY

Today is World Poetry Day, a UNESCO initiative to support linguistic diversity and promote the use of poetry to give native and endangered languages the chance to be heard within their own communities. It's also a wonderful opportunity to highlight the lyrical beauty of poetry, and its ability to articulate an image, theme, or emotion within a compressed, heightened, narrative structure.


And to read poems. Because, frankly, poetry rocks.


So, in the interests of sharing the love, find herein attached my favourite poem, Little Johnny's Confession, from the brilliant Mersey poet Brian Patten, from his collection of the same name.

Little Johnny's Confession

by Brian Patten

This morning

being rather young and foolish
I borrowed a machine gun my father
had left hidden since the war, went out,
and eliminated a number of small enemies.


Since then I have not returned home.

This morning

swarms of police with tracker dogs
wander about the city
with my description printed
on their minds, asking:
'Have you seen him?
He is seven years old,
likes Pluto, Mighty Mouse
and Biffo the Bear,
have you seen him, anywhere?'

This morning

sitting alone in a strange playground
muttering you've blundered, you've blundered
over and over to myself
I work out my next move
but cannot move.


The tracker dogs will sniff me out.
They have my lollypops.








So: what's your favourite poem, and where can it be found?