In the Spotlight

In the SPOTLIGHT we bring to readers’ attention forthcoming Mudfog publications and current activities. We shall also be including poems from Mudfog and other Tees Valley writers.

Bert Ward, author of the 'Dear Bob' books, has just published a collection of stories and poems, Hugh Bell School 1937 (Lulu, 2008). Below is a more recent poem, a reflection on young people and knives:

The Grieving Years
 
Yesterday you played clever buggers,
Today we are playing consequences.
With knives and blades and shards of glass
You stabbed to death
That lad
And lass
Though they had caused you no offence
That justified such violence
It was, simply,
They had not learned
To show respect
You had not earned.
So you acted
And in haste
Laid another’s life to waste.
Yesterday
You played clever buggers,
Today
We are playing consequences,
And tomorrow
And the next day
And the grieving years
Still to come.
 
Bert Ward 7th June 2008
 (c) Bert Ward