If you can raise a profile
When all about you
Are losing theirs and
Blaming it on you;
If you can create a
National debate
On poetry’s fate,
During conference
season too;
If you can harness a Princess,
Nobel judges,
And the BBC,
To champion this noble art;
Or resurrect Mr Kipling’s name,
And position it as poet,
Not Bakewell Tart.
If you can do all this,
And more,
On a tiny budget -
Doubtless hard won;
And take the nation’s
mind away,
For just a day,
To higher things:
You’ll be a PR person,
my son
James Maxwell, Scope: Communications
(with apologies to Rudyard Kipling)
