To All at the Theatre Royal, Workington

How glad I was to join a throng
of players, and enter theatre’s song!
To take a few parts of old age,
and totter into things back-stage!
To help rig up a miracle
of light delight – a spectacle
of opposites – the grief and glory
of old – a farce – a living story.
Ah, but the best part was the laughs,
the lines mis-learnt, the photographs,
the costumes, the wild dress rehearsal –
all lost, at memory’s dispersal –
the rush for the last dressing-room peg –
the last of the known world – “Break a leg!” –
the edge of a new time, of a new space –
and then a falling-into-place.

I’m off now. Not quite into thin air –
my name’s on a programme here and there –
and how could I leave you all behind?

The Theatre plays on in my mind.