In the doggerel house!

In the days when I used to pretend to be a writer but never actually do anything about it, the only practice that I used to get was writing verse inside the birthday cards to my friends.  I must have pumped hundreds of these out over the  years, but I never kept any copies (which is probably just as well).  However, Peter, a good friend of mine of many years standing (and sometimes falling) has unearthed this example from c 1989.

Some Simple Truths

They say life begins at forty,

That pride goes before a fall,

That it's better to have loved a short girl,

Than never to have loved a tall.

Now these are all true observations,

On the sharp edge of experience, honed,

Say, if life's just a bowl of cherries

Is that why we keep getting stoned?

Apologies to all those who love poetry!

You can see why Ted Hughes didn't have sleepless nights about me, can't you?