Carol Ann Duffy’s ode to David Beckham is a perfect illustration of why poetry is experiencing a tremendous revival in the age of Twitter and social networks.
Achilles (for David Beckham)
Myth’s river- where his mother dipped him, fished him, a slippery golden boyflowed on, his name on its lips. Without him, it was prophesised,
they would not take Troy.Women hid him, concealed him in girls’ sarongs; days of sweetmeats, spices, silver songs…
but when Odysseus came,with an athlete’s build, a sword and a shield, he followed him to the battlefield, the crowd’s roar,
and it was sport, not war,his charmed foot on the ball…
but then his heel, his heel, his heel…
The medium is the message, and as we return from the mass media, to the power of word of mouth (mediated through the internet) poetry once again comes into its own. Tiny, dense packets of information, perfect for viral dissemination through a media that demands the message be short and sweet.
Damien Walter 