Adieu

To the many many people who have helped me so much over the last few years I just wanted to say thank you. Including Chris Forde at Preston College, the LWH, the critique group especially Alan Whelan, John Rutter, Heather Carey, and Tim Gavell. Chorley and District Writers with Dea and
David, Preston Poets (all of you), Penwortham Live, the New Continental and everyone who helped make the two Word events so successful.
I'm heading back down to Portsmouth so I just wanted to make sure I said something in case I don't get a chance to see you in person before I go. If I haven't mentioned you by name, but you have had the dubious pleasure of my company, I apologise.
Once again, my huge thanks to all those who have made my writing experience here in Preston, you cannot believe how much you have all helped me, both in skill (I hope) and confidence.
Here is my final offer to you, may you find favourable winds (and a half decent publisher!)

Adieu

Avast! Me hearties, I’m windbound no more,
  My trunks are packed and I have a full store,
Primage is paid, the snotties have boarded,
  My course is laid in, the path recorded.
High tide has turned, and my sails have been set,
  The anchors lashed tight against the cathead,
A black moggy stalks, to protect our souls,
  The pilot’s aboard, to slip past the shoals.
So as Preston’s waters slip out of sight,
  And I travel southward into the night,
A tear fills my eye as I think of those,
  Who took time with me and my salty prose.
To the poets, pirates, and roguish crew,
  Who’ve critiqued, and survived, my fulsome spew,
Thank you for the work you’ve put into me,
  May our paths cross again, at land or sea.

Thank you so much everyone.