that trip in 1975.
Tossed like luggage in the van
coming from Totleigh Barton.
Thwaite was intent on driving
as Scannell peered over the map
I sat upon some cushions
with my backpack on my lap.
Thwaite lectured on the Romans
a proper history buff.
The boxer mentioned prison
humanity in the rough.
I left as things got heated
about the worth of Tom Gunn.
As I made a quick retreat
I never found out who won.
I stood on the hard shoulder
and watched the van pull away.
Somehow I'd survived that drive
from Arvon that Summer's day.
Note: I have been thinking a lot recently about my
time on an Arvon course at Totleigh Barton in 1975.
The tutors were Anthony Thwaite and Vernon Scannell.
At the end of the course they offered me a lift back
to Cardiff in the back of a van. They dropped me off
on the hard shoulder of the motorway near the Heath
University Hospital in Cardiff.