DAY 33: A PROMPT BY RHYS OWAIN WILLIAMS

DAY 33: RHYS OWAIN WILLIAMS

Making Use of the Useless

A Note From the Author: I wrote the prompt below before we were shown via Israel’s regular shutting down of communication in Gaza (in October and November 2023) how the deprivation of access to the Internet can be a powerful tool of war. Rather than rewrite the prompt in light of this, I instead want to acknowledge that while readily-available Internet access may seem like a privilege (especially when used in the way suggested in the following prompt), the freedom to be able to communicate is a human right (as set out in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights). By having their lines of communication purposefully ‘unplugged’, the people of Gaza have lost their ability to stay informed, keep connected with loved ones, access life-saving information and document what is happening in their country. 

With the Internet now almost always within reaching distance, we can very quickly become versed in any topic of interest that pops into our head. But not all of this information is what you would call ‘useful’. When my son was born, to stay awake while he was sleeping on me, I would go down Wikipedia rabbit holes on my phone. The legal status of the self-proclaimed Principality of Sealand. The historical uses of the Pepper’s Ghost illusion. The post-Premier League career of Colombian footballer Hamilton Ricard. It all interested me, but I realised I’d never make use of this newfound knowledge in my daily life. Not without boring someone to tears, anyway. However, after one particularly long sleepless night reading the biographies of characters from Coronation Street, I started to wonder if there actually was a way to use all this useless information. And so I challenged myself to write a poem about Weatherfield villain Richard ‘Killman’ Hillman, extending his murderous 2003 soap-opera storyline into the realms of 1980s horror movie sequels. Killman Part II: The Rover’s Return. It’s not my best work, but it was fun to write. And it made all that night-time research worthwhile. Making use of the useless.

So what useless information have you learnt this week? Perhaps you’ve been brushing up on the famous residents of the Hollywood Forever Cemetery? Or become acquainted with the closest living relatives of the Tyrannosaurus Rex? Maybe you just found out that a housefly hums in the middle octave key of F. Use whatever useless knowledge you’ve recently accumulated as the jumping-off point for a new poem. The more yawn-inducing the better—make that boring source material shine!

And if you vehemently disagree with the idea that the accumulation of knowledge can ever be useless, instead try writing a poem about a topic that nobody else will have written a poem about before. I wonder if there was a Ferris Bueller poem in the world before Kathryn Gray’s ‘Regarding Your Day Off’, or if readers had seen Simlish in poetry before Matthew Haigh’s ‘What Will Your Sims Do Now?’. Think Jessica Mookherjee’s odes to former Melody Maker poster boys, or Jonathan Edwards immortalising Ian Rush’s famous goal-scoring moustache. I can’t be sure, but I’d like to think my poem is the first to feature the Street’s greatest antagonist Richard Hillman. Celebrate the uncelebrated.

Too often we think of poetry as a form of high art that should only explore certain subjects. But nothing is off limits. No source of inspiration is unworkable. Use your ‘useless’ knowledge to put a new poem in the world. It might not be your best work. But—then again—it might.

Further Reading

•  ‘Half-time, Wales vs. Germany, Cardiff Arms Park, 1991’ by Jonathan Edwards (from My Family and Other Superheroes, Seren Books, 2014)
•  ‘Regarding Your Day Off’ by Kathryn Gray (from Flowers, Rack Press, 2016)
•  ‘What Will Your Sims Do Now?’ by Matthew Haigh (from Death Magazine, Salt Publishing, 2019)
• Play Lists by Jessica Mookherjee (Broken Sleep Books, 2021).