With other children games he did not play <br />When they played football he would steal away <br />To take short walk or rest in shade of tree <br />He felt happy in his own company. <br /> <br />He did not have sporting hero as a god <br />And other children called him 'John the odd' <br />And other put down names like idiot and fool <br />But he ignored their taunts and kept his cool. <br /> <br />He loved Nature and Nature was his friend <br />And his leisure hours out with Nature he spend <br />And 'twas Nature first taught him to be a poet <br />And to her children his first rhymes he wrote. <br /> <br />He wrote of Nature's creatures living free <br />The birds of song who live on bush and tree <br />The animals that live on land and sea <br />He loved Nature and her huge family. <br /> <br />From their schooldays men recall John the odd <br />They say he went to join his Nature God <br />One morning he left home for far away <br />And none know of his whereabouts today. <br /> <br />With other boys he did not play football <br />And those who went to school with him recall <br />That with Nature he spent his leisure time <br />And 'twas Mother Nature who taught him how to rhyme.<br /><br />Francis Duggan<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/john-the-odd/
