Thought for the Day

As delivered at BBC Radio Bristol today.

National Poetry Day. This year's theme 'messages'. Couldn't resist:

Good morning you people I'm having my say

I bring you a thought for a poetry day

It's breakfast with Emma on the BBC

But just now she's shut up to listen to me

I bring thoughts to ponder but linked to the news

And some of these subjects have stirred up your views

For instance crowd-funding's become all the rage

To afford cancer treatment on your weekly wage

And am-dram type students considered it best

To cancel their show which was causing unrest

Was that par for the course or maybe stupidity?

Do you think that an actor should straddle ethnicity?

And what of the modern world - toughened or tender

Are there job limitations on the basis of gender?

The Clifton Suspension Bridge has a new master

Will the fact that she's female be great - or disaster?

This topical programme delivers the show

That informs and debates and discusses and so

Attend to the message; listen in to the chat

You'll never keep up if you don't manage that

It's Keith with the headlines and Joe with the travel

If they're not on form then our lives all unravel

The papers reviewed and the markets explained

All bases are covered - no, one yet remains

This faith-based two minutes of which I'm the provider

Should take local thoughts and then focus them wider

Because if hearts and minds are the radio's goal

Then just for a moment attend to your soul

I cannot pretend, if I did I'd be odd,

To view every tale through the eyes of my God

But I can leave a message; I can drop a thought

That a holy perspective should sometimes be sought.

I added one further effort to the limerick competition:

A good-looking feller called Joe

Did the travel on a great breakfast show

But he got in a mood

When Emma was rude

And made all the traffic go slow

I seem to have become Pay Ayres. It's the Somerset air.