What to do with my afternoon downtimes?
Why not read Eric’s whimsys and rhymes?
They perk me up, they’re original and amuse
and now help me recover from Covid’s blues.
His telling of Shakespeare in Birkenhead’s bold
revitalising trite themes now refreshingly told.
Reminiscences of the sixties never to forget
when I read his poem of his old blue Dansette.
His playful verse about What’s in a Name
made nominative determinism into a game.
His Life in the Sixties with such insightful guile –
Redifussion and Pools collectors – made me smile.
Looking in the Mirror showed his felicitous knack
of how I’d like to turn my ears and years back.
To conclude, I don’t think it’s splitting hairs
to say that his verses rival laureate Pam Eyres.