NEWS FROM OLD GIRLS
Jenny Lithgow (Denton, 1954-59)
The first sonnet was written in May 2020 in the first lockdown and the second in April 2021, as we were coming out. Hopefully this will redeem me from the terrible error I made when at Grey Friars when we were asked to ‘write out a poem’. I totally misunderstood that it meant ‘compose a poem’. I have never forgotten the shame. Act V, mentioned in the sonnets, is a group of older adults that meets weekly in Colchester for different activities relating to theatre.
Sonnet written by me, May 2020
​
I wake up to another day
Another one of toil and care;
I ask myself why do I stay
But plough on in this nightmare.
The daily routine goes round and round,
How do I escape from this lockdown?
But in my garden birds abound
Cheering me up from the chorus at dawn.
I take five, sit in the garden and close my eyes
Teecher, teecher, teecher goes the great tit
My favourites the skylarks sing from so high
Sparrows chirping stop, stop, stop, for a bit.
Nil desperandum to keep me alive
I enjoy zooming with Act V.
​
​
Out of Lockdown 2021
I enjoy zooming with Act V, I do
It’s kept me sane throughout this last year.
Without it I think I would have gone cuckoo.
I’m sorry for absent friends we miss so dear.
Staying at home with nothing at all new,
except as exciting as if next door’s
bathroom window is open or not, eeuuu.
And are the people following the Laws?
So, we will be able to go out soon.
Do I want to? I think I’ll stay at home
with wild birds and the hedgehog. What a goon!
We’ll just carry on like Derby and Joan.
Will I be tempted to go into town?
Only Act V will get me to go down.
​
​
​