Poetry and All That by Jack Daniels

Wed, Mar 4th 2020 at 12:50 pm - 12:50 pm

A man of many talents!


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Appropriately for Stanza Week, the Rotary Club of St Andrews was entertained to a biographical anthology by member, Jack Daniels. Seamus Heaney’s “A Farmer’s Boy” recalled boyhood days in rural Ireland. At school the adorable Miss Scott taught Poetry, French and Ballroom Dancing. When the children asked her to read “the poem about the mouse,”Jack mischievously released a boxful of mice into the classroom!

 

A great traveller, Jack would find comfort in a copy of Lermontov, found among the books in a Russian police station on the Iran/Turkmen border. Wherever he goes he always finds a helper, usually called Natasha but on this occasion, Ann - fellow member Ann Baird. Ann recited Charlotte Mitchell’s, “Just in Case”- the very antithesis of travelling light - and earned spontaneous applause.

 

Other favourites included Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken,” Jack revealing an interesting local connection. Frost had spent a year at Kingsbarns. WH Davies’ well known poem, “Leisure” recalled  frustrating delays in India where one must learn to be patient.

 

Sonia, Jack’s wife introduced him to touching lines from “Atlas” by Ursula Fanthorpe: “There is a kind of love called maintenance”.

 

Ian Johnston then moved thanks to both Jack and Ann, contributing verses by an 18th century Scottish author, too well known to mention!


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