Reflecting on this piece I wrote for Living Tradition, which ends with a John Betjeman poem ‘The Last Laugh’. Why I Do
On Sunday 25th August I’ll be performing in the John Betjeman Centre in Wadebride, for Cornwall Folk Festival. HERE …almost on John’s birthday (28th August).
Here is a poem I wrote as a tribute to the great poet on arriving at Trebetherick, 28th August a while back.
We arrived just in time for your birthday;
Jackie, the children and me,
But too late for St Enodoc’s Evensong
And too late for afternoon tea.
Past Delabole Wind-Farm and Quarries,
Port Isaac and ghostly Port Quin
Where they’ve built a fake church for a movie
And the phantoms queue up to get in.
And it’s 30 a day for “Extras”,
Free pasties and burgers and chips.
The sun’s going down on the sea graves
And the ocean is licking its lips.
In the quiet dusk’s flickering distance;
Streetlights from Wadebridge and Rock,
Past St Minver’s wind-worried steeple,
Too late for the seltzer and hock.
We toasted you though in our campsite
With some foreign red wine from the bar,
And Joey recited by lamplight:
“A man on his own in a car…”*
When the recital was over
And after we’d all gone to bed
Joey whispered “The trouble with John is
“You can’t get him out of your head.”
Reg Meuross
(* ‘Meditation on the A30’ by John Betjeman)
