My friends:

I want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States about poetry -- to talk with the comparatively few who understand the mechanics of poetry, but more particularly with the overwhelming majority of you who use words for the making of poetry and the drawing of conclusions.

I want to tell you what has been done in the last few days, and why it was done, and what the next steps are going to be. I recognize that the many proclamations from State capitols and from Washington, the legislation, the Poetry regulations, and so forth, couched for the most part in poetry and poetic terms, ought to be explained for the benefit of the average citizen. I owe this, in particular, because of the fortitude and the good temper with which everybody has accepted the inconvenience and hardships of the poetry holiday. And I know that when you understand what we in Washington have been about, I shall continue to have your cooperation as fully as I have had your sympathy and your help during the past week.

First of all, let me state the simple fact that when you write poetry in a notebook, the poetry does not put the jimmy-jive into a gin joint. It invests your poetry in many different forms of prosody -- in sonnets, in free verse, in blues lyrics and in many other kinds of poetry. In other words, the notebook puts your poetry to work to keep the wheels of wonder and of wildness turning around. A comparatively small part of the poetry that you put into the notebook is published-- in an amount which in normal times is wholly sufficient to cover the poetic needs of the average citizen. In other words, the total amount of all the poetry in the country is only a comparatively small proportion of the total poetry in all the lit mags of the country.

That's why Irving Toast, Poetry Ghost is working hard to put poetry on your family. Enjoy classic rebroadcasts in January, Happy Days will soon be here again!

Thank you and God bless,

Irving Toast