Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2009 | Page 43

INTERVIEW
famously did an anti-Iraq war piece –

something – can you recommend

probably not what the government had

something? ‘ “

in mind when they appointed him. He

Unfashionably Motion likes Gordon

life

so well.
Motion doesn’t just prefer poetry to be
heard aloud, he considers it vital. If you

had tweaked the tradition, and in his

Brown. “He’s a fine person. I feel

search for a poem on poetryarchive.org

ten years re-defined the laureateship as

completely loyal to him.” Gordon Brown,

you’ll hear it read, either by its author or

an advisory role. “You’re an ambassador,

he says, cares about art and culture

some appropriate actor. It is performance

you’re an advisor, you’re a drum beater.

in a way that Tony Blair and Margaret

art which, he stresses, is exactly as

You hang up the bunting! You toot the

Thatcher didn’t. “It didn’t show up on

Tennyson’s audience would have

bugle! You do all that stuff,” he says.

their radar – it wasn’t useful. But art isn’t

experienced it over a tot of mead. “What

Except tooting the bugle in his case

useful, it’s valuable.”

the internet has allowed to happen is for

means conceiving of a website which is

Indeed so. Every month a million and

visited by 175,000 people every month.

a half pages of poems are read via the

to be reaffirmed in a way they would have

website, www.poetryarchive.org. . “What

completely understood in the mead hall.

chat about a poem over a glass of the

that proves is the problem about poetry

And magnificent as the printed book is,

sherry, which famously goes with the

is not appetite, it’s about delivery.” Book

the book, nevertheless, buries it a bit.”

office of Laureate, as having the ear of

shops just don’t cut the mustard. “Where

the Prime Minister. “It’s interesting to be

is the poetry? Upstairs at the back with

magnificent trees have lengthened just

r V