The Ballad of Bernard Nyman
When Bernard Nyman reads your contract
you won't need your make-up compact:
No tears when Nyman's on the case.
He safeguards both your fee, and face.
Bernard Nyman's a legal whizz,
publishers' friend and authors' quizz,
His comments make the editors tremble,
And mocking calumnists dissemble.
When Bernard Nyman comes to town
The plagiarisers wear a frown.
They won't get far with secondhand news
Once Nyman gives ‘em the legal blues.
Oh Nyman, Nyman, well-read lawyer!
We know a lot, but you know more! Ya
Give advice and weigh the cost
of publishing what's better lost.
But Nyman's advice is just as sound
When something written should be found,
For straightway when he got a sight
of Pirate Prufrock, he put us right:
You get permission or else your Pru
Will never see the Horizon Review!
Permissions saught, permissions granted:
saved by Bernie, singlehanted,
Pirate Pru still rules the waves.
Faber smiles when a poet behaves.
The mermaids sing – though not to Mermen.
They sing instead for Bernard Nyman.
Katy Evans-Bush
freelance copywriter and editor, communications consultant, poet, critic and journalist, and blogger
katyevansbush.com
baroqueinhackney.com
saltpublishing.com
|
