The Banana Poem

As a child, (when television was still a rare luxury in most of India), on rainy afternoons in Shillong, with a view of the mist-covered hills as the backdrop, my father would read out his favourite poems to me - and I was hooked for life.  And of course everyone knows that it is impossible to taste a Shillong banana and not be addicted for life.  So those remain my two great passions.

Many years later, my father saw what my family now refers to as 'the banana poem' on the Underground in London, and laughed all the way home because it reminded him of me.

It remains one of my favourites, and I think it's only right that I should start my new blog with it.

The Uncertainty of the Poet

By Wendy Cope

I am a poet.
I am very fond of bananas.

I am bananas.
I am very fond of a poet.

I am a poet of bananas.
I am very fond.

A fond poet of 'I am, I am'-
Very bananas.

Fond of 'Am I bananas?
Am I?'-a very poet.

Bananas of a poet!
Am I fond? Am I very?

Poet bananas! I am.
I am fond of a 'very.'

I am of very fond bananas.
Am I a poet?

(from 'Poems on the Underground')