Some, perhaps many, would say poetry concerns itself (too much?) with sweet and lovely things – like birds and flowers, music and beautiful landscapes, not to mention love itself – with even poignant emotions like grief given a bitter-sweet flavour. But as we all know, life is littered with obstacles, formidable difficulties and frustrations. Not to mention excrement... please read on. Here's a man only half way through an appalling list of challenges, telling us about a particularly foul one. Little wonder then that in these circumstances he'd have been pretty foul-mouthed himself. We know that he had a vile temper, so I'm sure he'd have been an outspoken effer and blinder. Conventionally though, poetry – especially the afore-mentioned Fotherington-tomas stuff – would never ever have included such a vocabulary, even though these are words to be heard all the time, especially when emotions are running high. Which perhaps explains my difficulty wanting to use ...