Mickey Commercial briefly emerged from retirement to tell us about the manner in which the Poms have appointed of a special poet for the Ashes. David Fine approached the Pommy Arts Council and suggested himself for the role, and, to the awe and envy of starving poets everywhere, actually managed to score himself payment for his ordeal. See The Guardian for details.
Fine was also featured on AM this morning. He will put up a poem a day on his site. As he said, it’s pretty hard to be the poet-in-residence for the Olympics, unless one is able to compose haikus exceptionally quickly during the 100 metre dash. But cricket gives one oodles of time to versify, and to, as Fine hopes, sum up the atmosphere and politics of the play.
We at Sidelined are intrigued by this application of literary endeavour to the fine subject of The Eshes. We think anything the Poms can do we can do better, and it is our national duty to prevent the Poms from stealing the play. Therefore, we announce, Rafe Champion will set himself the task of composing a poem a day during the series, and post them here.
Rafe, mate, we hope you understand that Sidelined is unable to offer you any remuneration. We expect you to do it for love, even when we rib you mercilessly for your versification. But at least you’ll be able to say you’ve participated in an Ashes series.
And, if it gets going, we might even set up a special Ashes Haiku series.
8 responses so far ↓
Mickey Commercial // Nov 20, 2006 at 8:08 pm
Rafe you, er, champion. Let the Ashes of poetry begin.
Stack » The Ashes of Poetry // Nov 20, 2006 at 8:14 pm
[...] Further to yesterday’s post on the English poet in residence for the Ashes tour, the Sidelined mob have taken up the challenge and Rafe Champion has been appointed poet/blogger in residence for the Australians. He has committed to one poem for each day of each test, to match the expected output of English poet David Fine. [...]
Rafe // Nov 22, 2006 at 7:21 am
The challenge at this stage is to work out the tone of voice to adopt and also the form. The simplest way to go is to crank out some doggerel verse that refers to something that happened on the day, or to the state of play.
Another option is to produce a daily parody of some existing work, like the Charge of the Light Brigade, a mistaken and suicidal event in the Cremean War when some mad Englishman sacrificed a heap of horsemen by charging into a death trap.
“Boldly they rode and well, into the jaws of Hell”
“Gallant 600″.
five // Nov 22, 2006 at 9:36 am
Just so long as you don’t do the Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Although I suppose if you were going to pick one poem to cover the entire series, that would be about right in terms of length.
David Fine // Nov 28, 2006 at 2:03 pm
Good day,
‘Where are these poems, you blokes?
Punter’s decision not to enforce the follow-on
Left you plenty of time for poems and jokes
Like your batting which went on and on and on.’
I’m stuck out at ANU at present, researching the next test. Who may tell what Adelaide might bring? I note that you can bring in chairs provided they don’t obscure gangways or other folks’ view. Having been asked to move a 500ml water bottle from the edge of a gangway caught on CCTV by a crewmember of the StrineShip Enterprise, aka The Gabba, last Friday, I’m thinking of bringing in a low-slung chaise-longue, silk-dressing gown, slim volume and other things suitably louche.
I’m also working on retelling Banjo Patterson’s “The Man from Snowy River”, with a version called “The Last of Blow-Up Sheila”, which refers to the fate of the inflatable woman after she was placed into custody on Saturday. (Cops’ll do anything to up their arrest figures.)
Regarding the entire series, I’m reckoning on going back to Milton’s Samson Agonistes (the time after his run-in with Tom Jones) which as you all know kicks-off
‘Eyeless in Gaza, shoulder to the wheel’
Ashes Agonistes will be in two voices, one Pom, one Aussie, starting
Pom: ‘Clueless at the Gabba, Ashes to hand’
Aussie: ‘Ruthless at the Gabba, hurts to amend’
Coming together at times in chorus.
In what year did Coventry City win the FA Cup?
Shaun // Nov 28, 2006 at 3:21 pm
The challenge has been met Rafe! Enter the fray and restore Aussie honour!
And lovely to have you stop by, David.
five // Nov 29, 2006 at 9:59 am
Yeah Rafe, you’re letting the side down.
Mate.
It is lovely to have you on site David. Well done!
airlinetickets // Mar 3, 2008 at 7:38 am
http://airlinetickets.american-airline.info/index.html airlinetickets
Leave a Comment