Robin Hood’s Stride.

 

My ill-fated adventure to see the Nine Ladies stone circle, could have dissuaded me from venturing back to Derbyshire in search of Robin Hood’s Stride, another bronze age monument. Happily, it did not.

Much easier to locate than the Nine Ladies, though no less a test of one’s fitness, I reached the tip of Robin Hood’s Stride with no mishap, and set about gathering resources with sketchbook and camera. It’s only afterwards that one looks back at the video and thinks “What if I’d fallen? Who would have found me?”

Video: Robin Hood Stride.

I am pleased with the pastel sketches I made. Perhaps there’s a style / technique here I could return to?


 All text, pros, photos, & artwork, copyright Ian Gordon Craig.

Elvis in Skegness & Cheese and Chalk.

 Elvis in Skegness.

They're selling postcards of Elvis
All across new Skegness,
Alongside Betty Boop trinkets
In a state of undress.
And where "Kiss Me Quick" hats
Were the sauciest fad,
Now hang day-glow beach towels
Reading "Fancy a shag?”

Cheap Cherokee Injuns
Cast in plaster and brass,
As if their tepees were pitched here
In long ages past,
Replace Fisherman mascots
And lifeboat appeals,
Southern fried chicken menus
But no jellied eels.

And did those blue suede feet,
In ancient times,
Walk upon England’s
East coastline?
And was the King
Of shake rock and roll,
Along our Skegness Pier
Seen out for a stroll?

I did not come for Jerusalem
Just the England I know,
Stick rock candy and chips,
Not USA Tupelo.
Saucy postcards, cramped caravans,
Plastic sandals, salt sea,
Tin bucket sand castles,
How things used to be.

Cheese and Chalk.

I sit in silence
Whilst you always talk,
Defining the difference
Between cheeses and chalk.

All text copyright Ian Gordon Craig.

 Updated versions of these poems would be published in my book "46 Contemporary Poems".

Tower Cinema, Skegness.

 

After collecting my painting of Skegness’ Tower Cinema, from Thoresby Gallery's absurd idea of a “Salon des Refusés”, I have made some changes. Originally it featured a second figure walking towards the front of the composition. It’s much better now with just that solitary girl.

The painting is about the passing of time, as symbolized by that sunset going down behind a building that has looked much the same through the decades.  I do think my reason to start visiting Skegness for annual day-trips, was something to do with looking for old England, a country I would recognize from childhood, or at least those years before full time employment took over my life.

 All text, pros, photos, poetry & artwork, copyright Ian Gordon Craig.