Taxi driver publishes poetry book (From The Northern Echo)
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Taxi driver publishes poetry book
8:50am Monday 9th January 2012 in Readers' Poems
CAB CULTURE: Taxi driver and poet Duggy Verrill has written a book about the people he meets in his job
A TAXI driver has turned banter with passengers into published prose after writing his first poetry book.
Duggy Verrill penned, Down to Earth - Poems about Life from his Hackney cab while waiting to pick up fares across Middlesbrough.
The verse which tackles issues ranging from losing a beloved pet and putting a parent in a care home to the breakdown of British society and the harsh reality of watching your partner age is told in a chatty-style with a comedic and bawdy tone.
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The Graveyard by Duggy Verrill
Took the wife to the cemetery today
She wanted to lay some flowers
I thought to myself, I’ll keep her happy
It’ll kill a couple of hours
There’s nowt on the telly and I’ve read the paper
She’d already dragged me round town
It was a good idea, getting out for a drive
To visit old friends who are underground
Reading a few of the gravestones
Funny, I didn’t remember them that way
But whenever they’ve passed over
It’s strange what people say I read my mate’s wife’s headstone
Says he worshipped her ‘til the end
He must be getting her mixed up with someone else
‘Cos she drove him round the bend
The next was Tom’s girlfriend’s headstone
Saying how loving and faithful she had been
Those words were very sincere and true
But it was to the local football team
We started counting all the graves
Of everyone we knew
She got up to 96 I got up to 92
Instead of feeling saddened I started cheering up
She said: “What are you smiling for?”
I said: “Nothing buttercup”
I started thinking of all my friends
Laying in their plots
And the money I’d have spent on birthday cards
Adds up to quite a lot
So coming out of the graveyard
Far from being depressed
All the money that I’m saving
I’m glad they’re laid to rest.
He first put pen to paper 20 years ago when workmates on a building site asked him to come up with witty rhymes for their loved ones on Valentine’s Day.
It wasn’t until he read out some of his lyrics at a Christmas party that he realised they could have a wider appeal.
“A family member asked if I had any more poems as he thought they were good enough to be turned into a book, so I got them all out from under my bed, “ said Mr Verrill, 52, who has been behind the wheel of his black and yellow cab for 17 years.
After buying a computer for £70 he self-published the first print-run of 100 copies for £400 before Christmas and now has only seven left.
“I write every poem in my taxi, I say what I see and I have lots of time to think. I’m not putting myself down but I use everyday language as I don’t understand big words,” said Mr Verrill who enjoys his job due to the array of characters he chauffers in the back of his car every day.
“I have picked actors, brain surgeons and drug takers up over the years and I have learnt not to judge people on what they look like. I love my job and would not do anything else,” added Mr Verrill who is writing material for his second book which he hopes to publish this summer.
“If my poems can make you laugh, cry, feel nostalgic or connect with something inside you, then it was worth it.”
To order a copy of Down to Earth - Poems about Life by Duggy Verrill costing £5 visit www.duggyverrill.com
