Coronation poem highlights the good we can do for one another

for God and giants should open to let her in.

and inner Wiltshire, lucky to live here.

Maurice Spillane: Of Poetry Swindon

and once when it rained. Crossing The Mall she’s just a person like everyone else but her hand keeps checking the invitation, her thumb strumming the gilded edge of the card, her finger tracing the thread of embossed leaves.

In sight of the great porch she can’t believe the police just step aside, that doors shaped

It’s a poem that jumps boundaries. I’d like to think of her as a volunteer, one of the unassuming masses that get important jobs done without fuss.

If only we could harness the “Unexpected Guests” within our community. Imagine the difference it would make.

I’ve spent decades defending Swindon at poetry festivals when confronted with the negatives. I know the grim buildings are from the fifties, the centre has too many boarded-up shops, the permanent scaffolding around the Mechanics Institute and other eyesores. On the positive, I extol the green spaces within the town

I was out with volunteers picking up rubbish by the roadside recently. It was grim. Beer bottles and cans, takeaway cartons and unfinished meals, condoms and detritus that would make you gag. We collected a lorry-load, all of it thrown from cars passing through. I wish they’d stop and talk. I’d give them Armitage’s poem, invite them to be “Unexpected Guests” next time they pass through. I’m sure it would require no more than that.

You can read the full poem at poetrysociety.org.uk/ poems/an-unexpected-guest www.mauricespillane.co.uk

Alfie Howlett: Swindon Town FC writer

My previous column posed an important question - who is to blame for Swindon’s poor season? Jody Morris or Sandro Di Michele?

The Swindon board have since decided that both men are culprits with the two being dismissed.

As is so often the case in football one man’s loss is another man’s gain and this time the opportunity has fallen to Michael Flynn to become the 24th Swindon manager since 2001. There’s an array of reasons why I believe the Welshman will be one of the more shrewd appointments of this century.

The initial reason sounds simple but I assure you it is the most important. Flynn understands the demands of League 2.