Ann, I can identify so much with the sentiments of your poem!

Thank you, Graham; I find it easier to respond to these prompts when I can say something I actually feel. It is good to know that someone shares the feeling. Perhaps Tessa will.

When my husband died I kept a pine plank he was working on. He was intrigued by native american chip carving and was applying it to images from mediaeval vernacular decoration.

When I wrote the skip poem I looked at that plank, nailed (!) over an ill-fitting door in a stud wall of my own making. It is too long for a lintel. It gathers dust and houses spiders and many would say I should have "skipped" it long ago.

I looked at it again today. There are three Green Men in a row, the middle one a foliate head with oak leaves reaching out to his brothers who appear to be singing. At either end a beaked creature holds them captive. I realised for the first time that they are griffins.

Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests...

I’ll chip with it.

Ann,
If your skip poem fails to reach the Winner's Enclosure there will be immediate hat-eating here in East Dorset -- plus a letter to the Management demanding the instant removal of La Castro.

It is a thing to delight in. Your poem, that is, not the removal. Though, the more I think of it the more I believe that long-term comp judges should all be changed more frequently than seems to happen.