Category Archives: Year

Farmhouse delivery

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Now Charles appears, the latest of the line,
Arising with the sun to claim his day.
No midwife needed for this noisy lad,
Impatient to arrive and print his tracks
Upon the fields of Life,
Untouched by parents’ fears who, faute de mieux,
Learn as they go, respecting nature’s hour
Which clearly waits for none.
But all is well and anguish cedes to joy
As James and Lucy birth their bonny boy.

Let blessings fall as plenteous as the rain
And love and hope their family sustain!

With love and congratulations 28.7.01
Daddy

The Cows are out!

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The cows are out,
They’re in the lane!
Old Mrs Jay
Stands in the rain,
Holding them back,
Away from the track
Which leads to the woods.

Pluff is there, too,
With a shoo, shoo, shoo,
To help Mummy guide
The cows inside.
Quick! Shut the gate,
Before it’s too late!
The last one’s in,
O joy, O glee!
Let’s go back home
For a cup of tea!

2001

Race against time

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Time was lethargic
In those early days,
Taking his rhythm
From a sluggish clock
High on the classroom wall.
He dragged his feet
At every turn,
Advancing Christmas
All too slowly,
Droning on endlessly
In Sunday sermons.
Only at nightfall,
Colluding with parents,
Did he hasten his pace
To get us to bed.
He was a spoilsport
of the worst kind,
Always hanging around
But not really with us.

He showed his true colours
In the season of shooting stars,
Never waiting for me.
Never looking over his shoulder
But setting a stiff pace
with leaps and bounds,
Like a boy out of school
Vaulting flooded ditches,
Taunting: “Come on, slow coach!”
I had no choice but to follow,
My feet ever heavier,
His pace quickening at each stile.
There was no pity in him,
No hint of comradeship,
And I knew that, in the end,
He would forge ahead alone
And abandon me gasping,
Face downwards in the mud.

November 1991