Who are the biggest influences in your life?
Who’s my biggest influence?
I couldn’t really say.
Who is there to take the blame
That I turned out this way?
Some would blame my parents
I get it all from them
But they had four different children
And no two are the same.
It could have been my teachers
I had a few of them
But I went to so many schools
You can’t pin down the blame.
Maybe television
Or all the books I read
Or just the times I lived in
And the things that people said.
I’m fundamentally Christian
But somewhat a la carte
Of mixed denomination
There’s quite a few I’ve tried.
The Jesus of the Gospel
Cannot be denied
So critical of religious folk
Who are not always kind.
I’ve always loved the Quakers
The guiding inner light
Their Advice and Queries
A favourite book of mine.
As to literary influence
Well I love Wendy Cope
Don’t take myself too serious
Just love the stuff she wrote.
A little touch of Kipling
Some Hardy here and there
Taking off John Betjeman
MacNeice and thirties fare.
There’s no one quite responsible
I guess I am just me
I have to take the blame myself
And act responsibly.
Andrew Green's Poems 