Lucky

I am a member of The Poetry Society. The confession seems in need of some justification. Years ago, it was a way of keeping in touch when I didn't have any other contacts. These days, as well as Poetry Review, a members' newsletter, a local Stanza group and the right to use club premises on certain terms, membership can have unexpected benefits. Unannounced, there arrived in my letterbox a 200+ page poetry collection, lavishly illustrated (as they say) and larded with endorsements:

X is the real thing. I love reading his verse and you will too.
Stephen Fry

This is marvellous stuff... a 21st century Kipling. He rollicks and rolls with rhyme, meter, and melody.
Tom Wolfe

Annoyingly good.
Hugh Grant

I enjoy his poetry immensely.
Mick Jagger

You feel he lived it so richly, so dangerously, that he could be wise for our delight.
Dr Robert Woof, Director of The Wordsworth Trust

A fantastic collection! Rich, sumptuous and beautifully threaded.
Jon Snow

If Waugh were still alive, he would fall on X's verse with a glad cry of recognition and approval.
John Walsh

That would be Auberon Waugh, then. I love John Walsh. He can be a devil at times.

Here's an extract from On Entering My New 'Writer's Cottage' on Mustique For The First Time:

Here in a fastness, filled with light
In view of a turquoise sea,
A fool has banished himself to write,
And, oh, that fool is me.

A fellow member of The Poetry Society came up to me the other day, apopleptic that someone could have bought the right to a PoSoc mailshot when there are so many more talented poets around crying out to be heard.

While I don't have a lot of time for the Mustique musings, such as I have read, I don't quite share her sense of outrage. Poetry isn't a zero sum game. No other poets were denied a purchase by this publicity stunt.* The mailout wrapper makes it quite clear that the gift is not from The Poetry Society, but from the generous donor. No doubt he paid handsomely for the privilege. Are they supposed to turn down such a gift on behalf of their members, and if so, who would make that decision and on what grounds? Should they turn it down if it were (just supposing any were rich enough and so inclined) from Simon Armitage, The Wordsworth Trust, Jeremy Prynne? Should they turn it down if it were a consignment of fresh coconuts? Yes to this last, presumably, on the grounds that fresh coconuts are outside the remit of The Poetry Society and the delivery of unsolicited fresh coconuts to members might amount to a nuisance. (Though personally I wouldn't mind them sending me a voucher for a free coconut, courtesy of the Mustique Development Agency, so that I could take advantage of the generous offer if I chose.)


She was almost incoherent with rage, but I think what my acquaintance was objecting to was the fact that Mr Felix Dennis (for it is he) is rich, and the further fact that publicity can be bought. And the fact that it can be bought, apparently, by anyone rich enough. Or at least by a rich poet she disapproves of. She is also exercised by the idea that the very use of The Poetry Society's mailing machine might give his publication some kind of imprimatur. (I am not sure what value should be attached to The Poetry Society's imprimatur. The Poetry Society arrogates to itself the definite article.) And not least, she is exercised by the perception that good poets can find it very hard to get published, let alone get publicity.

I haven't put it to her, but I wonder if she isn't also slightly bothered by the suspicion that innocent members of The Poetry Society might pick it up and actually like it. Dennis has made his fortune by an astute reading of popular taste.


*P.S. In fact, Dennis sponsors the Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection, under the auspices of the Forward Arts Foundation. This puts £5000 into the hands of a new poet, along with a fair bit of publicity.