Sir, - Your literary columnist John Boland is frequently scathing about the unprofessional or uncanonised poetry which comes his way. He was no less so on Saturday, July 12th, the day his own poem Such Stuff appeared on the same page as his regular Bookworm column, thus allowing this reader the irresistible opportunity to assess the critic as poet.
His poem rhymes and scans reasonably well. But if one applies the loosely adapted Myles na Gopaleen cliche detection method, a different judgement emerges. A few examples will demonstrate this. What were the wondrous dreams trembling for? Their fulfilment. What did that something seem too real for? It was too real for words. What unwanted things were discarded? A pram and an old tyre.
Seagulls emit lonely screams, there are heavy hulls on boats, men fling ropes ashore for mooring, ships sound notes, infinities are promised and an exclamation mark is the method of emphasis.
Mr Boland was right when he remarked on that same page that "after all, there's only good poetry and bad poetry". - Yours, etc., RORY McCLOSKEY, Cabra, Dublin 7.