OTLEY'S Town Poet has written a special piece of verse in honour of Thomas Chippendale.
Matthew Hedley Stoppard composed Thomas Carved Our Town in memory of the master cabinet maker and furniture designer, who was born in Otley 300 years ago.
It supports a whole programme of local events that have been organised by Visit Otley - including talks, concerts and an antique fair - to celebrate Chippendale's tercentenary.
Mr Stoppard recited the new poem (see below) in front of residents and councillors at the end of the Town Council's AGM on Monday, May 14.
For full details of the Celebrating Chippendale festival visit www.visitotley.co.uk .
Thomas Carved Our Town
Open the wardrobe as wide as it goes
and let light cover streets and farmland.
A man walks his dog and throws it a stick
a chair-leg when freed from his hand.
Lampposts stand like balusters
along a terrace row of dolls' houses,
children play skittles, clogs on the cobbles
sparrows clatter like old coat-hangers
Lovers hold each other in a wood-vice grip
lips red as the head on a match
the sawdust Wharfe spills over the weir
near the bridge and the wooden church.
A young wooden mother goes into labour
and gives birth to Russian dolls,
her proud father carefully shaves his chin
then slaps varnish on his wainscot jowls
Friends share a pint of mahogany ale
their wits as sharp as a chisel;
one starts to sing, another purses his lips
and plays a tune like a penny whistle.
We clothes-peg people, we toothpick folk
thank our maker for his work everyday;
he carved each heartbeat, dovetailed our joints,
he sandpapered the hate away.
For full details of the Celebrating Chippendale festival visit www.visitotley.co.uk .
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