by Catherine Graham
It’s a mystery, maybe just a mystery to me
why a poet would want to lose their local accent,
ditch dialect words learned at their grandmother’s knee.
Maybe it’s nothing more than the aroma of snobbery.
Whatever the reason and however well meant,
it’s a mystery, maybe just a mystery to me.
I’ve a fancy it’s more an English thing, you see.
Would Shakespeare in his ‘winter of discontent’
ditch dialect words learned at their grandmother’s knee?
I’ll never do it, go all la-di-da, trust me!
Or maybe we all do at times, to some extent.
It’s a mystery, maybe just a mystery to me
why there are poets, you may or may not agree,
so keen to get published are quite content
to ditch dialect words learned at their grandmother’s knee.
I’ll not write poems just to please the bourgeoisie,
wilderness-grey words that crumble like clay or cement.
It’s a mystery, maybe just a mystery to me.
Ditch dialect words learned at my grandmother’s knee?
Catherine Graham grew up in Newcastle on Tyne in NorthEast England where she still lives. Her poetry has been published in magazines and anthologies in the UK, USA and Ireland including The Stony Thursday Book as well poems published online. Her awards include the Northern Voices Poetry Award, The Northumberland Writers Award and The Jo Cox Poetry Prize. Catherine has read her poetry on BBC Radio 4 as well as on local BBC radio. She is the author of three poetry collections.
Her pamphlet Like A Fish Out Of Batter is published by Indigo Dreams Publishing and is inspired by the work of artist L. S. Lowry. Catherine writes, “I was drawn to Lowry’s work because the people in his paintings could be my own proud working-class family.” Catherine has read at numerous poetry festivals and events including the The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, The Durham Literature Festival, Northern Stage, The Liverpool International Poetry Festival and a number of Amnesty International Poetry Benefits. Catherine’s latest poems and recordings are available in the free-to-download online anthology I Sing, Therefore I Am over at carerspoetry.org