Poetry? Yes please , if we can only understand it....

As you are all no doubt aware the Poet Mick Imlah has just won the Forward Prize, which is the sort of Oscars for Poetry. His anthology The Lost Leader was apparently a clear winner, with absolutely no arguments between the judges (in itself unusual) I do hope that it's not as high brow as last year's winner, Sean O'Brien's The Drowned Book, because if it is I don't think that I'll be able to understand hardly any of it. And this comment is coming from someone who loves modern poetry in it's various forms and organises a monthly poetry night. I'm afraid that some of these judging panels can be so up their own arses inward thinking that the rest of us are just left to feel excluded from the academic inner circle. Of all people Joanna Lumley, spoke out about this very thing in the Daily Mail recently, so it's not just me. I will be buying the new winner's anthology though because I suppose you have to stay open minded. The biggest growth area in the poetry world is Spoken Word poetry by the likes of Polar Bear and Scrubious Pip, (well they have to have catchy names don't they!) and it's easy to see why: they're far from high brow, they appeal to a much larger (and younger) audience and they sound good and are often set to music. Different forms which cannot be compared you might say; well people (like me) do compare them and decide which are more thought provoking and entertaining. There has to be a balance between the two surely....