Troops are in excellent spirits ...

This is a bust of George Stephenson said the custodian - 

That's his son, Robert - he was never in the best of health - 

Davy called them mere engineers -  

Around us, readers turned the pages of obscure journals - 

We had a duck billed platypus -

The custodian smiled - it's now resting in The Hancock - 

We climbed up wrought iron spiral staircases to gaze at portraits of fearless divines - 

Words spilled from books like dark snowflakes - 

I looked at a bound copy of The Times for Monday July 3 1916 - 

Troops are in excellent spirits it said - 

15.12

Wednesday 20 July 2016

Literary & Philospical Society

Newcastle upon Tyne