Richard Westcott's poetry

Well, perhaps just a little deranged, thinking of Mad March Hares. But of course they're not at all.  Performing, so that they might look a bit mad, playing a role yes, but no, not mad. However, pretending to be a little mad - which confers certain privileges if you're a human - can be useful if you're being entertaining if not outrageous, irreverent if not sacrilegious.  Then not-quite-acceptable, perhaps even disgraceful remarks may be seen as no more than slightly irresponsible as you provide laughs, a diversion, or even (or especially) an insight... Now we're moving into an interesting area.  Poets often grant themselves this permission, as of course do comedians.  Which brings the role of the Jester to mind - the classic stand-up, generating their own material on the spot in response to the conversation and company, risk-taking for sure, but in sailing so close to the wind, they travel fast, free and light - and impress the onlookers. When, I wonde

Viral Information Virus - a word much heard not just at this time of year ('there's a lot of them about') but one that's spilled quasi-metaphorically into other non-biological areas, you might say succeeding virulently... gone viral?  But that's what viruses do, and do very well. Fulfilling only some of the criteria for qualifying for life status, here are strange creatures indeed, not that that's the right word at all - not organism, more construction, set of instructions or even just a programme.  So the use of the word in computer malfunction is hardly metaphorical... Approaching this extraordinary - but so frequently encountered, so in a way not extraordinary at all -  thing (I find myself reduced to using this rather weak word) that may be represented in (admittedly astronomically colossal) sequences of numbers, with words - all that poetry possesses, however they may be presented - poses problems.  So I thought I'd turn to a