I’ve also been here:

Note to Shelf

The missus sent me shopping

She said I’d better hurry

The shops are always running out

I told her not to worry

I looked down at the list she’d made

Some fresh herbs for the chowder

The only other item was

A box of washing powder

I set off with my plastic bag

Though why she thought it urgent

Was more than I could fathom

What? Some herbs and some detergent?

So when I passed the local pub

And saw its door ajar

I thought a quick one couldn’t hurt

And went up to the bar.

But when I made it to the shop

Its stocks were almost gone

I realised to late that thyme

And Tide wait for no-one.

Iain M Spardagus

19 March 2026

Hi Natalie, I would consider that to be an honour. Please feel free to use it – and thanks very much for asking.

Apologies if I should be asking someone else about this, but I was wondering if I could get permission to use your poem You Took the Last Bus Home on a memorial plaque for my dad to go in my back garden. It may seem an unusual poem to choose(!) but I bought the book for him a year or so before he died and that poem in particular seriously tickled him. He had a brilliant, silly sense of humour and your poem just seems to sum him up, somehow.

Thankyou

Bw

Linda

first, take out the cheese, which might defeat the purpose of entering…

Thanks, Linda. I’d be delighted for you to use my poems in this way. Thanks for asking – and hope all goes well.

Happy book day.

Would it be OK if we read 1 or 2 of your poems at a World Poetry Day virtual event for GPs through the Royal College of GPs on the 20th of March, please?

I am also planning a similar refugee week event and would love to share your refugee poem then, if possible?

The hidden agenda is to get GPs to engage with the arts for their own well-being (high suicide rate!) and, of course, then to promote “social prescribing ” of the arts for their patients too! The brilliant book Art Cure by Daisy Fancourt has collated all the evidence, highly recommended.

Obviously, I will plug your books too.

Best wishes

Linda Miller

PS thankyou for making me smile so often with your emails, loved the one about giving up acrostics for the new year resolution !

Many has been the time I have wished I could fit myself into the cheese compartment.