The bard celebrates two other fine practitioners of the art, and laments a lost brewer
Standing is the Apples to Sitting’s Oranges
Mark Burnhope
On the Diamond Jubilee debacle
pink-suited Elton John sings:
I’m still standing but the thing is
he isn’t. Note: the stool buckling under
his gravitas. Every band member stands
but the drummer, or everything before
the jam – cool, measured – is butchered.
Standing is staring, greenly, at the fence
Elton croons subliminally, bids me to climb
higher towards the heights he frequents,
employ unprecedented levels of sleeping
muscle. I rise from the sofa, open
the curtain, jot down our encounter’s gist
as furiously, and frankly, as I can:
SYLVIA HIKINS recommends a fascinating, revealing, superbly acted evening of theatre
RUTH AYLETT reviews two collections of outright political poetry
WILL STONE applauds a comprehensive survey of love in its many moods and musical forms
Spain has joined South Africa’s ICJ genocide case against Israel while imposing weapons bans and port restrictions, moves partly driven by trade unions — proving just how effectively civil society can reshape government policy, writes RAMZY BAROUD


