Dear John

Also in the leaflet, I decided to include a poem which I wrote some time ago, but which, when I came across it, made me weep and weep because it was so unintentionally poignant in the circumstances.

Maybe I shouldn’t have – I really didn’t want people to think I was asking them to admire my writing or anything.  It was the incredible poignancy of the fact I’d used the word ‘trudged’, which seemed so relevant to your long trudge through your working years which you didn’t enjoy.  And the reference to ‘the final stride’.

Here it is (follow link):

Lines composed on the occasion of John completing the Pennine Way