Ted McKenna's anniversary
My dear friend Ted McKenna died on January 19, 2019 after a routine medical operation went wrong. I had the difficult job of writing the news report for UCR and, later, the great honour and privilege of writing his obituary for Classic Rock Magazine, although I couldn’t read it back for a while.
As I continue my attempts to focus more on my creative writing rather than my journalism (which I still love), I was surprised and delighted to discover that a poem about Ted was forming while I thought about him over a pint of New World in the Boat Inn, Stoke Bruerne.
It was another ditty rather than an epic and it assembled itself quite quickly, although it was very emotional as it happened and I must apologise to everyone who wondered what was wrong with me. It’s the same that’s always wrong with me!
Anyway, here’s to Ted McKenna, AKA Teddy Toddgrass of the Bromsgrove Five…
He sat within circles
Worked wood with warm hands
Formed patterns we felt
Bur could not understand;
The thinking behind it
Was tales formed from life ~
A kind way of saying:
"This is a fight!"
"Be angry, be loud,
Then stop when it’s time ~
Eyes down, hearts in...
And see what you find."
The echoes are empty
The noise is allayed
The silence is solid:
We hear what he said.
“Heartbeat is a treat;
Do what I did:
Make sure when it’s over
You can say that you lived.”
