I first encountered this poem when a work colleague (Emma Turnbull) suggested it as a response to a poem about Dr Seuss’ problems with PCs I gave her.

I like to listen to poetry; for some reason funny poetry is the only kind I really enjoy reading in my head. I assume that this is because there is too much free space in my head and difficult poetry has a hard time finding brain cells to stick to. I now send the poem to anyone on any occasion I’m involved in that gets cancelled – I would even, potentially, engineer the cancellation of an event just to have an excuse to get more people to read it.

Sending someone a poem that’s so specifically tailored to such a specific situation makes them think I’m all clever and have a poem for any occasion. I only have two poems for any situation. No situation has yet arisen that requires the other poem (which starts “There was a young man from Nantucket….”).

I don’t actually carry the poem as Sophie Hannah has it posted on her website so it’s easy to find whenever I need it.

Aly Barr works for the Scottish Arts Council.