I recently received a delightful surprise in the post. Our friend Barrie Haynes does not rate himself as a poet, but in 2021 he published a small selection entitled When I Was Of This Earth, in aid of Wessex Cancer trust in memory of his son who died in 2006. Under the imprint of Hat Gate Books this self-published little volume is marketed by Amazon.
Barrie’s simple, well crafted, poems use rhythm and rhyme to describe nature and places in an intelligible manner. They are evidence of close observation, his rounded vocabulary, and his knowledge of the country. Straightforward language includes some profound thoughts on life and death. I think he underplays himself.
I have chosen to reproduce this spare, elegantly simple, example. Unfortunately, this piece on Mevagissey bears a typo in the title. Nevertheless the poem is one of my favourites. It is one of two such titular misprints that mar the production – the other being Stanger for Stranger.
Several readers pointed out the similarity in yesterday’s header picture between my brother Joseph and me and our father.
Some will recognise this one of me with Chris and Jacqueline from 1947.
None will have seen this one of Dad probably taken in 1925 when he was 8.
We are continuing with rehanging our pictures.
Becky’s “Troll in a Storm”, produced aged 6, now hangs above my sitting room chair.
This evening we dined on Jackie’s Ferndene Farm Shop Lincolnshire sausages in red wine; creamy mashed potatoes; crunchy carrots and cauliflower; firm Brussels sprouts and peas, with which I drank Barossa Valley Shiraz 2017.