Fred Cogswell

With back bent double in the early morning

In the marsh we gather watercresses,

Beyond the chapel door two pipers played

When we came back, work-weary down the lane,

As one reads Robin Skelton's work, one feels that there is a craftsman, a man to whom the production of a good poem is more important than the initial impulse that brought the poem into being;

A. J. M. Smith, John Ferns. Twayne World Authors, G. K. Hall, 1979.

Now at the cenotaph

Locked in their roles by pride

Although the space between us lies immense.

Above the purple heather