[John Whitworth]

Yes they did a palinode before but it was different somehow.

No. 2795: Palinode

We’ve done this one before but it is worth repeating: you are invited to submit a palinode (a poem retracting a previously expressed opinion) on behalf of a well-known poet (16 lines maximum and please identify source). Please email entries, wherever possible, to lucy@spectator.co.uk
by midday on 24th April.

[Brian Allgar]

(Thinks: what if I rewrote John's Lit Rev winner about Mrs Thatcher in order to give her a good bashing? Tee-hee!)

[John Whitworth]

Too long, Brian.

Come to think of it, it's not true the old dear didn't make anyone richer. She made me £300 richer.

[Roger Slater]

Reresumé

Columnists pain you,
Hypocrites vex;
They'll say you're insane, you
Enjoy too much sex;
They'll tar you with slander,
They'll gossip and lie;
I say in all candor,
You might as well die.

[George Simmers]

This Is Just To Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

I wish that I
had not because
I now have
stomach ache.

[Brian Allgar]

(Oh, well - yet another attempt at recycling.)

xxxxxxLarkin about

They fucked each other, Mum and Dad -
Yes, even then, some couples did -
And nine months later, what they had
Was me, a smiling, sunny kid.

Genetically, I can't complain:
I have ten fingers and ten toes,
Four limbs, a fairly decent brain -
Pity I’ve got my father’s nose.

They did their best, but time went by
The way it does; before you know it,
That infant from a lullaby
Grows up a grumpy, grouchy poet.

But they, poor souls, were not to blame;
My parents really can't have known
That I'd become what I became -
I fucked myself up on my own.