Congratulations are due to Channel Five

For keeping verse (and fun!) alive,

By offering viewers welcome shares

In the pleasing company of Pam Ayres,

Wending her gentle Cotswold way

Taking pause to have her say;

Reminding us to rhyme "excoriate"

With her shameful exclusion from Poet Laureate.

While the poetry world lacks the gumption to sketch a plan

To select this successor to the much missed Betjeman.

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