Vanessa Austin Locke: Poetry Vs Pop Idol

The day someone first told me I couldn’t make a living as a poetess I was crushed, because it’s what I was. Apparently even Famous Seamus has to give lectures. Gone are the days when poets where revered or adored, now we have pop idols instead and the bards – the Byrons and Blakes – belong to the misty past. Stories need to be thrilling, racy, fast or set to music now. “Get your plot faster. I said ‘page turner’. You need a gay best friend in there!” my agent keeps telling me. “We don’t do poetry.”

Don’t readers relate to the seemingly insignificant moments that can inspire a poem anymore? The average made beautiful, strange and vulnerable, the hyper-realism of the minutes of our lives. We’re in entertainment over-load, there’s too much to get through. That’s what happens when production becomes free and quality control vanishes. We have no time to stand and stare… anyone know who wrote that?

“My favourite pastime is gazing out of the window. Most people think it’s time wasted”

My favourite pastime is gazing out of the window. Most people think it’s time wasted, but I consider it some of the most constructive time I’ve ever spent. The art of thinking is dying. My maths teacher once penned a humorous report to my parents which went something like this: “Vanessa tells me that she likes the rain. She likes it because the grey skies make everything beneath them vivid. She especially likes the way the raindrops land on uncoiling ferns. Her algebra needs significant work.” I’ve never needed algebra in my life.

I have needed poetry though and while most wordsmiths set their musings to melody these days in order to reach an audience, there’s a difference between a poet who uses music and a musician who uses poetry. Lyrics are often a simplified version of a thought, made interesting by another medium.

But there are a few popular poets out there that shy away from simplicity. I used to tour with Laura Marling…she’s one. Nick Cave’s another, his lyrics to ‘Darker With The Day’ have the linguistic complexity, rhythmic pace and simple poignancy to paint the majority of the image, the music simply lubricates and lifts them in the right place.

“I passed by your garden Saw you with your flowers The camellias, magnolias and azaleas so sweet. I stood there invisible in the panicking crowd,You looked so beautiful in the ri-[MUSICAL LIFT]sing heat.”

Leonard Cohen was a poet first who set his words to music on advice. And Pablo Neruda’s poetry enjoyed a revival when it was set to Luis Bacalov’s soundtrack in Il Postino.

But those of us who are not so multi-disciplined are still here, still hanging out in coffee shops with holes in our shoes. You’ll find three of us in The Red Roaster on the 11th April at 7.30pm. The event is primarily a preview of Tony Frisby’s 5th collection – Me, Me And Not Me, to be published shortly by Waterloo Press. I will be reading from my new collection – Percival – and Brighton’s Alice Walker will also be reading. For those of you who like a little music with your words we’ve got Benjamin Blake performing Jacques Brel classics in return for glasses of red wine. I hope to see you there.