The Entertainers - Unplugged Poem by Len Webster

Late night TV is not generally for me.
The sight of Baddiel and Skinner on a set
Never rouses me to ecstasy
Or, at least, it hasn't yet
Inspired me much except to charity,
Donating my time lest I forget
How feeble comics muddle through
When they really don't know what to do.

Conveyed by pictures floating by,
These verbal doodles become the age,
Captured in glances by a jaded eye,
Not tamed, not savoured on the page,
Never to be forgotten because so often seen
But media-manipulated by a tedious machine.


(c) Len Webster 2003

(Quoted by David Baddiel in
'Why is Philip Larkin most novelists'
favourite poet? '
The Times, November 26,2005)