Burns The Celebrity Poem by Sheena Blackhall

The fans of the man are legion:
Michael Jackson, Abe Lincoln, John Steinbeck, Bob Dylan
The astronaut Nick Patrick took his poems into space
217 times they orbited the earth
He inspired Churchill, Martin Luther King

He's got more memorials
Than any other non-religious figure,
Apart from Queen Victoria and Columbus
And even more amazing, was one of us!

Scottish TV viewers voted him 'The Greatest Scot'
Ahead of William Wallace, Fleming and Robert the Bruce
He's part of the DNA in our genome juice

His songs are everywhere
‘Auld Lang Syne' was filmed in Willy Winkie
Do you watch that Xmas classic, It's a Wondefrul Life?
It's there.
Sex and the City and When Harry Met Sally
It's there

Crooners hone their larynxes to do it justice:
Bing Crosby, Duke Ellington, and Frank Sinatra
Dean Martin, B.B. King, and John Travolta
The Beach Boys, Jimi Hendrix,
Olivia Newton John,
Rod Stewart, Mariah Carey the list goes on…

It's used in Japanese stores to signal closing-time.
In World War I it was sung in the Christmas truce
British and German soldiers together sang it

250 Burns clubs round the globe, venerate him
He is worth £157 million per annum to Scotland
Celebrate him!
Stamps, banknotes, digital media
Commemorate him!

The day of his death he owned one single pound
He inspired the past, and globally those who are living
Burns is the gift that always keeps on giving.