I’m pleased to report another poem in pop culture today. My last reported poem in pop culture was the poem in the Al Pacino movie Sea of Love which I rewatched during Covid in 2020. And the most popular Big Bang Poetry post of all time is probably the hilariously bad poem from Bob’s Burgers.

So now we have another one. For Ghost show fans, you probably already know there is the British TV show Ghost and the U.S. version of Ghost. I watch them both. The U.S. version has a lot of heart and can be very sweet; but the UK Ghost is indisputably funnier, which is not surprising. The cast is also mostly carried over from the skit comedy Horrible Histories, a show Monsieur Big Bang is a big fan of so I’ve seen many of those episodes and you can see how the UK cast coheres better for being an existing and robust comedic troupe.

Recently we’ve started watching the final season of the UK show on Amazon. And last night’s “Home” episode (#2 of season 5) centers around the writing of a poem. This is not surprising either because the UK show has a poet.

The U.S. show’s ghost-types include the mansion matriarch, the 60s hippie, a Revolutionary War captain (and his British counterpart boyfriend), the Native American, the jazz singer, the scout leader, the playboy stockbroker, the occasional visit from the plague victim and Thorfinn, a visiting Viking,

The UK version has the Romantic-era poet (played by the funny and handsome Mathew Baynton), a caveman, a WWII captain, a Conservative MP (the trouser-less counterpart to the playboy stockbroker), a Georgian noblewoman, a scoutmaster, a peasant woman (gone from season 5) and the mansion matriarch. Besides the poet, my second favorite character (played by the talented Martha Howe-Douglas) is Fanny the matriarch because she makes hilariously interesting faces.

Anyway, in the “Home” episode, the poet Thomas tries to ruthlessly finagle a poem from the matriarch so he can earn a publication in a modern-day poetry contest. This is the poem Fanny writes thinking she is just explaining to Thomas her love for her historic estate, a parcel of which is about to be sold.

Home
By Stephanie (Fanny) Button,
transcribed by Thomas Thorne

Have you never stood to regard our home
from its farthest corner,
the long grass shimmering in the sunlight
as the wind combs through the field
like gentle waves in a great calm sea of green?

Flowers die. The trees fail.
The house can change brick by brick
until nothing of the original remains.
Everything changes.

So home is not the walls or the gardens.
Home is the souls within those walls.
Home is the memories made on the spot.
Home is not a place. Home is a feeling.