Grasp The Nettle

Whether we were dragging wood from ditches,
Or sat quietly playing chess,
The times spent with my Grandad,
Are fond memories I possess.

Who else would wrestle a live goat,
Build a swing against a tree,
Take the phrase 'Grasp the Nettle',
And apply it, literally?!

There was always much to learn from him,
Farming tales from yesteryear,
His experience of different times,
Made the past vivid and clear.

And when visiting his garden,
His enthusiasm showed,
As he’d explain what he had planted,
In carefully marked rows.

A moral man; a simple life, perhaps,
Yet there was always time to laugh,
High summer, centre of a field,
He emerged from a tin bath!

So although I can’t now speak with him,
And all these times are in the past,
So much of him remains with me,
And these memories will last.

Composed July 2011