ODGO SEMMENS' NEW VERSE

By Poetry correspondent Alice Chirgwin-Jacka

'Odgo Semmens (79) the celebrated Cornish poet and author of the now globally-renowned and treasured poems I aren't and Walking in West Penwith, has, under unrelenting pressure from the crowds besieging his home in Colinsey Road, Penzance, released a further work, Penzance Childhood, which seem set to seal his reputation as one of the greatest living poets in Colinsey Road.

Penzance Childhood

Alverton, Gwavas, Penalverne, Treneere
I d'knaw all they places -- they are to me so dear.
First of all there was Susan and then cum Denise
As fresh as a daisy an' clear as sea breeze.

An' then there was "Mental" and my best friend, Tren --
We got into some scraps, but we got out again.
Gone down Newlyn Coombe, when we boys were out scrumpin'
Out come the farmer with his bleddy gun pumpin'.

We 'ad fun in them days -- good laughs, no real crime;
But we've passed 'n all by on the river of time.
I'm glad that I'm 'ere -- it's the right place to be;
Proper for Cornish folk -- like you and me.


'Odgo