Dr Embers Presents - By the hearth 05

"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere."
— Albert Einstein

Tonight, we return to the hearth for a more personal conversation as contributor Gordon Banks shares the inspiration behind the poems he recently read for us and reflects on the importance of imagination, creativity, and simple fun.

In a world that often prizes practicality and reason above all else, Gordon reminds us of the value of playfulness, wonder, and occasionally embracing the absurd. Together, we explore the enduring appeal of nonsense poetry, the freedom of the imagination, and why we should never entirely outgrow our sense of childlike curiosity.

So pour yourself a favourite drink, settle into a comfortable chair, and join us by the fire for an evening of poetry, reflection, and imagination.

Thank you for joining us around the hearth. Until next time, keep the fire burning. 🔥

The Fire is Lit!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:21

This is Verse and Tales, a podcast of story and poetry told by the fire. Tonight I am joined by the wonderful Gordon Banks, who read for us some nonsense poems only a few weeks back. So let's start off with discovering more about that quote that he chose. Logic will get you from A to B, but imagination will take you everywhere. So Gordon, tell us where did that quote come from?

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Well, so much today that seems to say, well, let's put it this way, two and two makes four. Everybody knows that. Two and two makes four. But what I'm doing suddenly, as you made it into four, suddenly said, I know what, I'm bored. I know what, let me get another four. And we're gonna play together. And so it's something about going beyond just the scientific stuff and all everything straightforward, to that wonderful world of colour and of imagination, of being able to go to, well, as Einstein said, any way you want, really, with the imagination. That's what it's about, that playful imagination, having fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Thank you for that, Gordon. I'll never forget when you were teaching me to tell stories, the importance that you stressed around imagination. That no matter how old you get, never lose that power to imagine. Why would you say that that sits at the very heart of everything that we should do?

SPEAKER_00 2:03

Well, you know, we can look at things and look at clouds, look at a rainbow, look at anything. And yeah, you can see what it is, but then you can look a second time and a third time and look beyond that and see something yet more wonderful, more fantastical. And it's just the pure joy and the pure fun. And we're able to encapsulate that in poetry and in tales and fables and many other ways as well, in other forms of art, but particularly as we're talking about the medium of words here. We can just have fun to step away from the strictures of uh of what presented itself and look beyond that and bring in colour. I suppose, in a sense, what I'm saying is that yeah, you can have a poem in black and white, which often presents itself, but yet where's the colour coming into it? And that's the bit that we love, just add that colour and that joy and that fun. And along the way, you'd be surprised that you learn things through that as well.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

So you talk about learning and adding that colour. So let's see what we can learn and what colour we can add to those poems that you chose. And I believe the first one was The Jumblies by Edward Lear. So tell us what made that poem stand out for you?

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Well, Edward Lear was one of the most prolific writers, um, and he went beyond just writing poems. He was an illustrator musician, author, and poet, um, mostly known for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose, and especially his limericks, although he never used that term. But this particular poem, the Jumbles, it celebrates adventure and courage and the joy of being different, using playful language and imaginative imagery, to delight of readers of all ages.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

Thank you very much for that, Gordon. I particularly loved how you talked about it was all ages. Indeed, I believe it was George Bernard Shaw who said, we don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing. And I think a big part of that playing is imagination. It's interesting because I think there are certain poems that you have chosen that can rekindle that joy. You remember being uh a child and hearing that poem or reading that poem and remembering how it made you feel. I don't think there's a poem that really leans to that more than the jabberwocky, which is your next poem. But also, if you can also touch upon the fact that you did that in a quite a northern accent as well, and you sort of really lent into that element of it.

SPEAKER_00 4:58

Well, the second poem is The Jabbawocke, it's a nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll about the killing of a creature named the Jabbawak, and it was included in Carroll's 1871 novel Through the Looking Glass, the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which again I must admit I just loved. And the alluring appeal of that because it became even a Hollywood movie as well. And the book tells of Alice's adventures of the looking glass world. And as I was looking and reading around this, I picked up that actually it has got some links with some medieval poetry, it's got some links with the Lampton Bottom, uh, which is a Northeastern story that we came across when we were living in the Northeast for a while, and just the words seem to slip into this sort of borderland, the Northeast into the Scottish, and it just seems to fit right within that. I just find myself speaking in that accent, it just seemed to fit well. That's all I can say, really. It was just quite a surprise to me. And a joyful surprise. But it's a lovely story. Of bravery and going out and finding these, you know, whatever monsters we can face, they can be beaten back.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

Fantastic. Thank you. Now, you mentioned there about look again. Indeed, the reason why I started Verse and Tales is because I believe we should look again at stories and poems, ones we know, ones we may not know. But try to see the hidden message, the meaning. Try to see if we can get our own meanings from those poems. There is no poem that really stands to this more than the owl and the pussycat. A poem that many of us know very well. So can you touch upon that thought process and how you decided to look again at the owl and the pussycat?

SPEAKER_00 7:01

Wow, isn't this a poem that we can really sit deep into with so much, sadly, where people are going into their tribes like never before. And yet here in this fantastical journey that this owl and the cat embark upon to a land where the boundary grows, and express a companionship and love, and the pairing is deliberately unusual, emphasizing playfulness, absurdity, and imagination. So just take that for a moment and think of those who are absolute loggerheads, two antagonists, and imagine them coming together in a playful, whimsical dance where what they're arguing about really just drifts into the background, as they just enjoy the company of the other for who they are. It's a great poem really that has playfulness, and yet if you just take a deeper breath and look a bit deeper, speaks to today's situation.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Wonderful. Well, thank you very much for joining me by the hearth this evening, your thoughtful insights, and of course your tremendous reading the other week. Thank you. Now, folks, this is not the last time that we will be getting contributors to verse entails. Indeed, as I've said before, if you have crafted a story or a poem yourself that you would either like me to read or you feel comfortable, confident enough to step up to the mic and read yourself, please do message me. And of course, as always, put your comments below. Your thoughts. Do you agree with what Gordon has said? Do you disagree? And if so, why? Let's see if we can get a little bit of a debate, a bit of a discussion going. And maybe on the next by the hearth, I could read some of your comments out as well. Thank you very much for all your support. I'm gonna end tonight by a little announcement. Verse entails has hit over a thousand listeners, and that's all thanks to you incredible people. Thank you for your support. Until next week.