Pen Portrait - Joan Butler |
Joan says:
From exchanging notes and letters in rhyming couplets with my Dad when I was a nipper to winning a poetry prize at school, to entering (and winning) consumer competitions on packets and cans (‘complete the following in rhyme….’) to winning more prestigious poetry competitions in such magazines as Literary Review, to copywriting for advertising companies, poetry has been a constant thread throughout my life. There was also a matter of 40 years as a professional musician, most of these in the BBC Philharmonic.’ |
In recent years Joan has been the author of three pamphlets Nobbut Once: Poems with a dash of Yorkshire, The Orpheus Game: Poems with a dash of wit, and The Lost Chord: Poems with a hint of music.
‘Joan Butler’s nimble, precise and delightfully entertaining and original light verse is the sort of mental tonic many of us need in today’s dark and unwholesome times.’
Jerome Betts
‘There are unwritten rules to writing light verse and, though they are unwritten, Joan Butler has read them all. Enjoy her poetry, you are in very safe hands.’
Nigel Forde
‘Joan Butler’s nimble, precise and delightfully entertaining and original light verse is the sort of mental tonic many of us need in today’s dark and unwholesome times.’
Jerome Betts
‘There are unwritten rules to writing light verse and, though they are unwritten, Joan Butler has read them all. Enjoy her poetry, you are in very safe hands.’
Nigel Forde
THE LOST CHORD
Diploma Grade in Harmony. My tutor was a peach. A consummate musician, too. He knew his subject-matter through and through And gave the lie to someone who Alleged that those who can do, do, And those who can’t do, teach. The principles of harmony unfolded like a rose. One morning – end of term in sight, All coursework done, all answers right – In youthful, unrestrained delight I ran to him and hugged him tight And kissed him on the nose. Some musical progressions get perplexingly involved: My tutor took a job in Kent. The finals duly came and went, I grasped what every question meant And passed with ninety-nine per cent, One cadence unresolved….. |
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