Blue Remembrance Poem by Keith Shorrocks Johnson

Housman was born in Bromsgrove 13 miles from Birmingham
And Tolkien grew up at Sarehole between Billesley and Spark Hill
Some 4 miles from the city centre.

Turning away from the forging and fettling, they looked west
To the memory assembled spires and farms
Of Shropshire and the distant Welsh Mountains.

There under sun shimmer and roiling clouds
Were mythic plough boys summoned by bugles
And hobbits awaiting a rat-a-tat-tat.

And now Peter Jackson, who was born in Pukerua Bay
Has scoped a partly polystyrene, partly animated
Hopefully-soon-forgotten substitute here in New Zealand.

After all, talking about places, Janet Frame warns:
‘I do not remember these things
- they remember me.'