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Before we Begin

I had always hoped to have my father’s poems in one
place and to create a collection of memories, as he and
I had discussed before his passing in 1986. In 2020, I
began my project to collate his poems, printed here in
Now we are Young, Now we are Learning and Now we are
Older. From the birth of his first grandchild in 1979 to
Joe’s passing in 1986, he recorded his observations of life
– theirs and his own – in these verses.
Growing up with Grandpa takes us on a journey
through Joe’s grandchildren’s early years to the place
where he viewed his own life. His varied career spent as
an officer in the RAF, a secondary school English teacher
and a principal in further education, as well as his own
experience as a father and a grandfather, afforded him
the opportunity to observe the world around him. He
loved nature, music and the English language and his
humour and loving patience led him to notice even the
smallest of details. He wrote about the time Andrew had
mumps, Nicola fell over at school, and when Richard
went on holiday to Morocco. But he also wrote about
his own advancing life, and here we see his personal
experience as darkness slowly descended. He wrote
about the politics of despair and unrest of 1984, the
importance of time, and the loss of loved ones.
In the poems printed here, Joe’s words give us an
insight into his life, his family and his last years.

Neil Forsyth, 2022

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