Hal G.P. Colebatch: Three Poems

William Pitt
(An entry in an internet contest for a verse on William Pitt)

Not everyone could, like William Pitt

Lead in a desperate war.

And when he became Prime Minister

He was only twenty-four.

So of the good Mr William Pitt

Let the muse stand forth and sing:

He stopped the great genius-gangster­,

And that was one very Good Thing.

Another Good Thing about William Pitt

Is that he seems one of my sort.

He spread the Army and Navy too thin

But like me he liked a good port.

But the serious thing about William Pitt

That stands alone and real,

Is that he never wavered.

He met steel with harder steel.

That is the lesson that William Pitt,

Alfred, Churchill, and some others teach:

Stand, and if you must, stand alone,

Alone in the terrible breach.

On the Award of the Nobel Prize to Harold Pinter

The greatest living playwright

Of the English speaking-world

Makes art of the absurd.

Stylistically elegant,

Tough-minded, deeply literate,

Original, yet a master-craftsman,

Probes truth with wit and grace.

Politically courageous and decent,

Anti-totalitarian,

Rebellious in the best sense—

Deserving of it if anyone is.

Good things about having a bad cold

Not having to work, not having to think;

plenty of orange-juice to drink.

Front door locked, phone off the hook;

nice red jelly and a book.

Hearing rain beat on the roof above;

my wife beside me who I love.

Hal G.P. Colebatch