brychar66

his channel is largely dedicated to my own poetry read by myself, although I do sometimes incorporate my readings of other poets that I like. Poetry on the page is very much like a music-score which does not come alive until it is performed. The You Tube format is ideal in that it enables one to add video (if required) to one's performances although mostly a well-written poem, if it is well-read, requires no image to add meaning. But by using images one can add different layers of meaning above those actually incorporated in the poem. Music can additionally help to create atmosphere or dramatic emphasis. All these things are a matter of taste and choice.

Poetry is to some extent a neglected art, and much of it deserves to be neglected. The poetry establishment - or mafia! - is largely to blame for this state of affairs with its enclosed enclaves; if indeed there can be said to be any kind of establishment. I suppose that the Poetry Society (largely subsidised by the taxpayer) is the main culprit in the United Kingdom: a very sorry collection of individuals almost totally obscure with hardly any real poets in their own self-electing membership. But really they are by now such a discredited and spent force that I should hardly be surprised if they were not altogether shortly extinguished, to the regret of hardly anyone! It was from these ranks that our tired collection of Poets Laureate were mostly gathered - and the present incumbent seems hardly likely to add to the lustre of the art :)

But do not despair! If you like poetry you will find on You Tube a wide and interesting collection of poets well worth listening to and it seems to me that in this place lies the true future of the art.

My other You Tube channel is cavafyinenglish http://www.youtube.com/user/cavafyinenglish where I am gathering together my adaptations of the collected poems of the Greek poet Constantine Cavafy. I have also recently started to read through my first volume of poetry 'Poems Opus One' in that place to add some variety.

- Charles Bryant, 4th December 2010