To ask whether you think this is a good poem? DD thinks it is inspired.

[kittensliveupstairs]

I won't name the author but will reproduce it.

Amy was not a sinner
She was a talented Grammy Awards Winner
With her unique music sound
She broke new ground

As she stormed both sides of the Atlantic
She knew how to make audiences tick
On stage she showed no fear
Being a talent so dear

She was hugely creative
And her music was highly rated
Amy was a star
Who shone from afar

Her albums sold worldwide well
Amy's music was fantastic and swell
At the age of twenty seven
Amy joins other musicians of her age in music heaven
RIP AMY

DD has been trying to memorise it all afternoon. At least she has been quiet.

If written by an under ten the verse may show some hope
Yet penned by someone more mature, it offers little scope
To rhyme and scan can often be impossible to master
The urge to cram the words in approaches ever faster.
And attempting to reply in rhyme leaves the critic looking flat
Whilst all about sigh and ask "now what onearth was that?"

Best turn off telly
Or choose another channel
Tribute will be crap.

My favourite haiku, by JCC.
TO-CON-VEY ONE'S MOOD
IN SEV-EN-TEEN SYLL-ABLE-S
IS VE-RY DIF-FIC

Sorry it's a bit shouty

The poem is shit obviously, but quite sweet that your daughter was so taken with it.

Tell you're Daughter (if that's who wrote it), that Amy Winehouse was not a hero.
She was a young Woman that died at the age of 27; because she was damaged.
One becomes an icon if one dies at 27. The real bitch is living till you're 80.

Anne, agree totally. I would like to clarify it wasn't DD, she saw it in the Liverpool paper. It's there for all to see on the letter's page.

Kittens, Thank you for confirming that. In which case my honest opinion is that it isn't actually delightful, it's rather shit.

Kittens - not so much of the rather. Just shit.

Meant LineRunneer of course.

Makes me want to poke my eyes out with a pointy stick. How about suggesting to DD that she memorise something decent in tribute, like...umm...

Rather shit is more poetic.

awful.

But seeing as others are talking favourite haikus mine is from fight club
worker bees can leave
even drones can fly away
the queen is their slave

Milton's Lycidas should loosely fit the bill, and it's about 200 lines so you could have another quiet day

I am not sure why she fixated on that particular piece of prose. She wasn't that keen on Ms Winehouse anyway. I think it must have been the childish nature of it that appealled to her.

The poem
Is shit
Innit

Appealed, appalled, it's all the same with that particular poem.

Was it written by Mrs Bridey Kelly, 66, of Bootle? She has stuff everywhere.

Who on earth uses words like 'swell' anyway, would a teenager even understand what was meant by that?

It is an awful poem.

No, not irony. Because I think it has more to do with a bad drugs habit than any lyrical talent.

OK, general round up time.

The consensus is that the poem is not inspired, in fact it's shit; that your DD should engross herself in some Milton; and that the word 'swell' is best not presented to teenagers.

DD reading it on my phone: "I have but one sentence to describe it: a cat has been sick on your phone." [ grin]

Then she said that poems need to scan, there has to be a good beat. This one has nothing, is tawdry and mawkish.

Ah well, kittens decided the Liverpool echo would be well used as a toilet, so the poem is no more. I refused to flick through cat piddle to find the author.