[Graham King]

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

[Ann Drysdale]

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.

[Martin Parker]

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.