THE  LEOPARD

What was that sound in the tree?
Why did the gazelle turn round to flee?
Why is there round here neither beast nor fowl?
A leopard has begun his prowl.

There he will wait in the tree the long day,
Until an antelope strays near ------his prey.
There he will wait most patiently.
Waiting for him is like a fantasy.


              written in 1972  when aged nine.



TROPICAL  BIRDS

Parrots, lories, macaws, cockatoos,
Birds of Paradise and turacous,
Mynah birds and humming birds.
There are so many tropical birds

Flashes of purple and scarlet breasts,
Orange, yellow and rainbow crests,
Black and white, blue and green,
old and silver in glorious sheen.

Beautiful winged birds flying away,
Tails spread out in courting display,
Of wonderful colours - - cascading down:
All these make the male's gown.

When nesting time comes the most curious homes
Are made in the rocks and crannies and holes,
Of small twigs and leaves woven together,
With other twigs pushed in hither and thither.


                                       1974 - aged 11







 

Richard always liked words and animals.   One day, before he was three years old, we were in a park in the South of England and he suddenly said," please can we go to the zoo ?".  "There aren't any zoos near here . I said, "but we can go to Belle Vue when we get home"."Why can't we go to the one down there ?" he said pointing to a small wooden arrow at the side of the path with the letters ZOO clearly printed on it.
I decided that it was time to teach him how to read from books. 

Richard worked for ICI at Runcorn and whilst there was offered a Monbushu scholarship to do research at Sendai University in Japan. The scholarship was conditional upon his being able to speak Japanese. He went on a 2 week, one to one, course at a Japanese language college near West Wycombe and at the end of his 2 weeks gave a speech in Japanese.

His journey to Japan was not without incident, the plane from London tried to take off with the boarding steps still in place. This damaged the fuselage and everyone had to disembarck and wait hours for a replacement plane. They flew via Alaska. Richard's comments about Anchorage airport were typical, "Half a mile of corridor, one stuffed polar bear, another half mile of corridor, one stuffed Reindeer . . ." etc. He didn't find it very exciting.