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terug

Soul

1 When I was 11, I found   50  residence later in 1998 at Marks & Spencer’s
a card a mystery man department stores and London Zoo, and The
had sent my mother. British Poetry Society recently received a
can’t remember the £450,000 National Lottery grant to inject some
5cover, but I can still humanity into the nation’s bloodstream. Early
see the inside55 plans include a Poems in the Waiting Room
distinctly. A hand, in scheme at dentists’ and doctors’ surgeries, in
very elegant writing, the hope they will match the humanitarian
had penned two short impact of London’s existing Poems on the
10lines in black ink: Underground.
    ‘She walks in660     So it seems today’s writers of verse may
beauty, like the night not be drinking spirits for inspiration but
    Of cloudless climes clocking in for work at law firms instead.
and starry skies…’ Volumes of poetry may soon be taking the
15The words were place of five-year-old copies of Hello!
  incomprehensible, but that just added to their65 magazine at the dentist. But among these
  mystique. Where were the ‘cloudless climes’? modern-day developments, poetry’s original
  What happened after the dot, dot, dot? It all lure should not be forgotten. It was neatly
  seemed much more exciting than a bunch of articulated by the 17th-century Irish playwright
20  flowers, or even a box of Swiss chocolates. George Farquhar, who declared that ‘Poetry’s
2      Later, a photo of the mystery man70 a mere drug, Sir.’
  emerged. He was a tubby teacher with dribbly,7     Following the success of poet-placement
  bloodhound lips. But that just confirmed my films like Four Weddings and a Funeral (for
  idea of poetry as a force that could make even WH Auden) and Il Postino (for Pablo Neruda),
25  ugly people desirable. ‘poetry – the drug’ has really taken off. Verse
3      Now lawyers and other executive types75 should not necessarily be consumed every
  have also adopted this train of thought. Bards day, but a gin and tonic, solitude, a cashmere
  are being hired by companies to give their robe and a couple of weird stanzas are the
  overworked employees an illusion of inner perfect post-work pick-me-up.
30  spiritual life and outer glamour. Top London8     The right poems have useful applications,
  law firm Mishcon de Reya has hired poet80 too. A poem chanted silently to yourself as
  Lavinia Greenlaw to give its staff lessons, with you plug away on your fitness equipment can
  a view to escaping the stress of working 18 get you through the toughest of energy walls.
  hours a day closing deals and making Shakespeare is perfect for such occasions,
35  conference calls. ‘We wanted to put some especially his sonnets, recited with the correct
  humanity back into the workplace,’ says85 stress:
  Jonathan Cameron, a senior lawyer at the     ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
  firm.     Thou art more lovely and more temperate…’
4      Greenlaw started running poetry workshops9     Many poets have cast off the mantle of the
40  in November; and Cameron says he is stuffy bard and instead cloaked themselves in
  intrigued by how his staff are reacting: ‘They90 more accessible apparel. Poets such as Jenny
  love unleashing their personal thoughts, Holzer specialise in easy-to-remember verses
  although many prefer to do it in private. One that read like sharp headlines or twisted
  secretary refuses to attend the lessons. She mottoes. Her catchy phrases - such as ‘Lack
45  goes to Lavinia secretly.’ And does poetry help of charisma can be fatal’, or ‘Money creates
  lawyers write better love letters? ‘I’m hoping95 taste’ – would be perfect for impressing
  it’s going to help them write better legal people in high-decibel nightclubs.
  letters,’ says Cameron. 
5      There are also plans to appoint poets-in- ‘Frank’, January 1998