About Me
I was born in the seaside town of Deal, on the English Channel in the UK. My elder bother, sister and I were bought up by our unmarried mother our father having left for another woman when I was 18 months old. One of only six to be selected from my school year to go to the Grammar School, I left without qualifications. I like to say that I ran away to sea, but in truth it was just the local ferries that ran from Dover to the French coast 22 miles away. Whilst at school I played with the local brass band for 5 years accompanying them to many contests and concerts including a week in Czechoslovakia in 1970. After a trip to New Zealand on a passenger cargo steamer I spent the next ten years bumming around the UK. I had more jobs than I can remember including factory worker, milkman, shop assistant, supermarket slave, dock worker ….
Eventually, while working as a ground investigation driller I wound up in Wales where I met my wife. I spent four years there mostly in her mother’s guesthouse, adding to my list of jobs including farmworker at Caldey Island where I lived in the Monestary for a year. When we married we moved back to Deal where I lied my way into a job which eventually led to store manager and then executive manager in the largest supermarket group in the UK. I retired after 20 years when I had cancer in my eye and a tumour on my pituitary. These poems, barring a couple, were written after retiring.
Ken's Poetry 
Jun 19, 2013 @ 03:58:01
Hokitika
It rained and rained and rained and rained,
The average fall was well maintained.
And when the tracks were simply bogs
It started raining cats and dogs.
After a drought of half an hour
We had a most refreshing shower
And then most curious thing of all
A gentle rain began to fall.
Next day was also fairly dry
Save for a deluge from the sky
Which wet the party to the skin
And after that the rain set in.
Pat’s original version slightly messed around and reformatted
by
Alan Bush 2013
Can you tell me who wrote the above and when. I was given a copy which didn’t quite scan and was presumably miscopied from somewhere. alun@scorraigweave.com I loathe blogs.