The more I hear modern poetry
The better I like The Beatles –
They have a song for every stage
Of love or loss or self-sufficient dignity#
They singularly celebrate our being
Their joy is to affirm this world is round
So is the soul –
A wholeness harmonised by time and space
Their speech is made more beautiful
By being plain and candidly direct
Unaffected by false ironies
Unconcerned with pleasing academics
Many ‘serious poets’
Find nothing in their catalogue –
Four men who forgive each other’s offences?
A thing unknown in Literary Life
Then they are poets because
They are not ‘poets’ but stand apart
Uncompromised un-convoluted
Free and unafraid
Out of north-west wind expecting rain
They conjured a warm
And multi-cultured climate
Complacency swept clean away
Up-beat they insist beyond
The toils of existential angst
Love remains and does remain
The Word although all things must pass
.
Bernard Saint
Illustration: Claire Palmer
.