The Welsh poet John Ormond (1923-1990) was also a film-maker, whose documentaries included studies of Dylan Thomas, Alun Lewis, R.S.Thomas and the artist Kyffin Williams. This poems is from his 1969 collection ‘Requiem and Celebration’.

At His Father’s Grave

Here lies a shoemaker whose knife and hammer
Fell idle at the height of summer,
Who was not missed so much as when the rain
Of winter brought him back to mind.

He was no preacher but his working text
Was ‘See all dry this winter and the next’.
Stand still. Remember his two hands, his laugh,
His craftsmanship. They are his epitaph.

John Ormond