July has slipped away and Inclement magazine has accepted three poems for their autumn edition. At long last the results of A215 have arrived and I am pleased to say I have managed to get a distinction for this. I thought I might not have scored so well on the final assignment which accounts for 50% of the total course marks. I decided to use the first chapter of a novel option instead of a short story or poetry. This gave me a new set of problems so to have scored so highly is doubly pleasing and a spur to get on and write the next chapter.
I have also been looking at the assignment guide for A363 the starting date is only two months away now and the formatting for scriptwriting looks quite daunting.
Since then I have been much moved by the tributes made to veteran Harry Patch over the last week and this has prompted me to write one of my own.
The Last Tommy
A lifetime lived, and then some more
nearly a century of silence and then,
he remembered, recalled to mind,
the horrors of that heinous time
A gentle man, West Country born,
a tradesman, did his work with pride.
A family man that honoured truth,
showed no regret for his lost youth.
He watched as slowly, one by one,
his band of brothers slipped behind
and scared that we’d forget the past,
decided he’d speak out at last.
Then history’s fallen, with his tongue,
rose from the trenches, tired and torn,
with hollow eyes that seemed to plead.
‘Listen to him. Remember me.’
Who will remind us now he’s gone?
A generation’s mouthpiece mourned.
The falling poppies will perhaps,
then we’ll remember Harry Patch.
******
© Jim Haynes.
