Poets Corner

Keswick Rotary Club’s Christmas Walk 2020.

Eleven go to Claife Heights- and one doesn’t.

I wandered lonely as a nerd

Whose faith in Google does not fail.

“Maps” showed “Red Nab”, so undeterred,

I took their route- to Harrowscale,

Then phoned our leader, Tony Duncan,

Who clearly thought that I was funking!

The Rotary ramblers duly met,

Grouped six and five, in this instance.

Alone I tramped, through cold and wet,

Though not required to socially distance,

I missed the crack, and Rotary chatter,

Quainton’s quips- the ladies’ natter.

I took a path to head for Sawrey,

Then up a track, more steep the climb.

Torrents roared in all their glory,

I splashed through streams, and slipped on slime,

But clambered on, with just one thought-

My share of treats the girls had brought.

When I’d passed the watershed,

The path improved, more often trod,

Less mud, more rock, a firmer bed

Down from the Heights. A gift from God

The route now joined from Claife- quite clear

For Rotary walkers stuffed with cheer.

As Bowlby’s babes- Graham, Steve and Paul-

Skipped down, replete with Christmas fayre:

Mince pies, wine mulled, suffice for all,

But scoffed by eight, my share nowhere.

But still my heart sings, never sullen,

Dancing still, not stuffed with stollen.

(Anon, but with thanks to William Wordsworth. 14/12/2020).