Heterogeneous Poems

By Raymond Hunt

‘I have read individual poems to a number of people who say they have enjoyed them – I am sure you will too! Some are romantic, some funny; there are also poems of the present and the past.
‘I hope the illustrations that accompany some of the poems help to deepen what the poem is trying to convey to the reader: the combination of words and pictures will give you a sense of enjoyment and of involvement in the poems themselves. In lots of cases, you will be able to immerse yourself in the adventure of the poem, recalling things that in the past you have seen or heard of. All of this will add to your enjoyment of the book.
‘To give you a little more insight as to how the whole saga of the poems began, let me take you back to 1945 when I was stationed on the Burmese border. Having little to do after the day’s events gave all of us lots of time to think about: home, our friends and the family. So it was only natural that to occupy some of those hours my thoughts looked elsewhere. I always remembered that poem by William Wordsworth I learnt as a boy, “I wandered lonely as a cloud” – you remember it? Most of us do, anyway. As it passed through my thoughts, I thought to myself, “Why don’t you write some poetry?”
‘I thought about it a lot, mulling it over in my mind, but decided that this was not perhaps the time. In the end, the thought came back to me from time to time, over the years: “Should I?”
‘Well, as you can see, it finally did happen, after all those years. So never say never.’
Raymond Hunt

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Jan 31, 2022
• ISBN: 9781398422155

Raymond Hunt

Born in Stairfoot in South Yorkshire, Raymond Hunt moved with his family to Dudley when he was seven. He joined the RAF in 1944 and was posted to India in 1945. He married his late wife Jean in 1950. Raymond worked as a mechanical/structural engineering designer before his retirement at the age of 64, when he and his wife toured every continent except Antarctica! Austin Macauley published the first volume of Raymond’s Heterogeneous Poems in January 2022 and the second in March 2023.

Book preview

My Telemetry

Now with my telemetry,

I thought I’d write some poetry.

Now that I am 92,

It seemed to be the thing to do.

Now that I have precious time

What could there be that’s so sublime

To find those words that really rhyme?

The thoughts go on within the mind

To find the words of that special kind,

The words so special that we seek

That makes the sentence so unique.

We can always tell when things are right,

That feeling when the heart is pounding,

The hairs upon your neck rebounding,

The shivers through your spine astounding;

The tears within your eyes

That make you realise

These are the words

Not often heard.

The ones that really tell

Within your soul will dwell.

A Boatman’s Dream

You often find that you cross swords

When other boaters want their way,

So they will curse and will display

Anger when they do convey;

The danger from their irritation

Could cause a real conflagration.

Generally the mood is good,

And it is understood,

Courtesy is the vogue, that’s as one should

Respect and display

Rules that cover the waterway.

We travelled on and looked around

The scenes of beauty, that we found:

Waterway cottages, a dream come true,

Fields of flowers, and trees there too,

A wondrous sight for all to view.

The windmill’s sails still going round –

Just listen to that whirring sound!

A sight of beauty so profound,

It even made my heart pound.

An artist’s dream,

And looking round, it would seem

That others were there too,

Just admiring the view.

We travelled on and found a lake,

That we did undertake

To cross. The water was not deep,

So we had to creep

Slowly as we went,

Carefully watching the water vent,

Suddenly there was a totter:

The engine now was getting hotter,

The water hose had now gone

And needed a new one putting on.

Nearby was a location,

Though it was a yachting station;

The master said we could not stay,

That we would have to move away.

I rang the engineer; I think that he was yawning.

He said, Sit tight, I’ll see you in the morning.

Early that day,