The only reason that poetry matters is that is has something different to offer, something slower on the uptake, maybe, but more intense for all that, and also something necessarily smaller in scale in terms of audience. Not better than mass culture but a crucial alternative to it.

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As an alternative to National Poetry Month, I propose that we have an International Anti-Poetry month. As part of the activities, all verse in public places will be covered over—from the Statue of Liberty to the friezes on many of our government buildings.... No vocal music will be played on the radio or sung in the concert halls. Children will have to stop playing all slapping and counting and singing games and stick to board games and football.

Day lost to stronger trade winds
Astronomers modelling minuscule changes in the Earth's orbital wobble have concluded that today should be 2 April, not 1 April, they announced this week at the Royal Astrological Society meeting in Milton Keynes, UK.