There's nothing so great as bad poetry.

Today is National Poetry Day in the UK, a chance to celebrate, encourage and enjoy poetry and poets.

Schools pupils bring in favourite poems, and radio and TV programmes have invited poets (or inevitably, celebrities) to discuss and recite poetry. Many newspapers run features on the nation's favourite poems, and events are taking place across the country - including a walking tour of the poetry of the Old Town here in Edinburgh.

But as everyone else celebrates wonderful poetry and great poems, let us take a different course.

Let's celebrate, encourage and enjoy the bad poetry too.

You know who I mean: William Topaz McGonagall, Poet and Tragedian.

Born (and died) in Edinburgh, McGonagall is most associated with Dundee, a town which hardly deserves such a fate.

Revered as "The World's Worst Poet", this sorry title hardly does justice to his perfection in choosing the least appropriate poetic metaphor possible, his complete inability to scan, and his habit of finishing lines with rhymes that, well, just rhymed.

You may know of "The Tay Bridge Disaster":

"Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay!
Alas! I am very sorry to say
That ninety lives have been taken away
On the last Sabbath day of 1879
Which will be remember'd for a very long time."

And so on, for 59 gloriously awful, wonderfully excruciating, terrible lines. It's fantastic.

Or "An Autumn Reverie" with, towards the end, its curiously relevant little bit of politics, my name's Ben Elton, good night.

"Oh! Think of the struggles of the poor to make a living,
Because the rich unto them seldom are giving;
Whereas they are told he that giveth to the poor lendeth unto the Lord,
But alas! They rather incline their money to hoard."

You'll have worked out by now that he was a great fan of declamation and the exclamation mark.

When everyone else does one thing, let us do another. So in memory of the great William Topaz McGonagall, I suggest you host a McGonagall Supper, with readings and recitations. To be accurate, you should serve in reverse order, starting with coffee and ending with the starter.

I attend one with old University friends every year, but I'm sure McGonagall wouldn't approve; one of his life's driving forces was the cause of Temperance.

"Oh! thou demon Drink, thou fell destroyer;
Thou curse of society, and its greatest annoyer.
What hast thou done to society, let me think?
I answer thou hast caused the most of ills, thou demon Drink."

I'll drink to that.