I come from Sherwood, Nottingham

I was once advised it was no bad thing to write poems even if they weren't much good, as if to 'keep one's hand in'. I don't know about that. 

'I come from' was the theme of Portsmouth Poetry Society's meeting this week and so I wrote this to be sociable but I can't see it making The Collected Poems. 

 

I come from Sherwood, Nottingham,
But not where Robin Hood did.
The forest was some miles from
Where I was first a schoolkid.

 

The wallpaper in my bedroom
Had pictures of the Beatles where
Others might have had flowers in bloom.
I liked Ringo best, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah.

 

From the back garden we could see
Constellations like the Plough,
My subject was astronomy
Although it isn’t so much now.

 

School seemed quite a walk away, 

Past the prison’s high brick wall.
And, passing it every day,
I was never naughty at all.

 

It seemed like we’d just won the war
And then we won the World Cup,
I hadn’t seen what came before
And thought the only way was up.

 

We left there when I was 8
And moved to Gloucester which had fields
And other things to contemplate,
Many of which quite appealed-

 

Concorde’s test flights served to convince
The future seemed to be Gloucester
But there and where else I’ve lived since
I’ve felt like an imposter.