Fourth Bard of Northampton

On Sunday 29th July 2012, the people of Northamptonshire elected me their Bard. Following in the footsteps of Donna Scott, Joseph Hilton Marion Bunn and Caroline Hussey-Bain, I was presented with my title at the Bardic Picnic in the grounds of Delapré Abbey by Roger Conroy, then the serving Mayor of Northampton.

Here is the winning poem:

What is a Sovereign?

A king or queen? The leader of the people?

A name for the Pope or someone regal?

A coin displayed on a ring or a chain?

A ship, a bank, a video game?

Another dimension?

Political or individual intention?

A car only made from 66-83?

Supreme power within a territory?

Rule by consent or a head of state?

Governing body we love to hate?

A star ship class, a Digimon?

A crime novel by C J Sansom?

But what does Sovereignty mean to me?

Something we should celebrate with jubilee.

Sovereignty is within all of us

you only have to look around at all this stuff...

the Bardic Picnic, the Umbrella Fair

the people that do, the people that care.

That’s what Sovereignty means to me,

someone who'll lend you a drink, a shirt or a marquee.

A movement, a change, a collective best

and all the people here, involved in this Bardic fest.