Roy Stannard's Blog

When you think you know it all, ask the next question

  • Dolce Domum (a message to Michael)

    Dolce Domum  (A Message to Michael) Enjoy every moment because it will be your first And one day your last Expect rather than hope What you will do next is written somewhere But not in law or statute Explore every metre, mile and meridian Sleep with the moon and rise with the sun And when… Read more

  • Who Is Like God?

      Who is like God? Love was the father and love the mother. You arrived in December, anticipating another Christmas A reward in yourself rather than a present A pilgrimage more than a journey Because we cannot find love in ourselves Only with another And you were the purest love The world of love in… Read more

  • The Language of Us

      The Language of Us Before you, I walked at the edge of the group A straggler in strangers My life didn’t fit, held together with an unsafety pin I was made not to measure A bird not of a feather And my hesitant shadow held back Expecting never to be expectant, half a step… Read more

  • Do It Yourself Celebrity

    Last Friday 29th July I went to the Holmbush Centre at Shoreham to help my old friend and radio colleague Patrick Souiljaert man (person?) a stand at the entrance to Tesco there. He has written an autobiography in microscopic detail about the challenges of his life as a person with Cerebral Palsy. He was starved… Read more

  • For Now

    Before the world became a serious business Because before you were a mother You were a little girl A wisp of a person Without a care in the world Read more

  • Eden Again

    I caught a single piece of history A man assembling his thoughts like a Summer picnic You ran through the landscape like a chalkland stream Swimming bareclad through the jibs and jibes and jabbering You took photographs through the lens of your compassion And used words like needlepoint, stitching people into history Read more

  • Is this the bravest book ever written?

    This may be the bravest book ever written. Why? Firstly, because in physical terms it took Patrick the best part of two years laboriously typing 700 words a day with his left index finger. Secondly, the subject matter is raw, honest and occasionally self-deprecating. His account of a visit to an unfeeling, heartless prostitute, his… Read more

  • April Showers – Abandon Ship (Chrysalis ‎– chs 2787 12″ 1984)

    ‘Abandon Ship’ emerged from all the stars colliding in 1984. Jonathan and Beatrice writing a romantic, panoramically lush pop song and asking Anne Dudley before she was famous to score and orchestrate it. Chrysalis records put it out on its Big Star offshoot as a 12″ with the vocal A side, instrumental B side and… Read more

  • Joyeaux Anniversaire, comme ils disent

    ‘Comme ils disent’ ‘As they say’, and they did about us But we stepped to one side and let the dissenters pass We let the March become April and the thunder become light. Read more

  • On the day you said yes

    The famous last words of two stories That became one on that day On the day you said yes And every day since. Read more