Sussex Day 16th June

This year Sussex Day is particularly important because my home county has just been designated as a ‘Dukedom’ following the marriage of Prince Harry to Meghan Markle (now the Duke and Duchess of Sussex). This is my poem to celebrate our special day.

Sussex Day

Are we ready to start yet, raise the blue flag on high,
As the bright yellow martlet flocks with friends in the sky,
Hear the Charter’s bold text read to folk in a bunch,
While the people of Sussex mark the day with a lunch?

From Borden to Boxgrove, from Worth to West Dene,
From Earnley to East Hove, Hampden Park, Hampers Green,
From Camber to Crabtree, Sunnyside, Silverhill,
Newpond Common and Nutley, Barcombe Cross and Bexhill,

Celebrate fine traditions, such as bonfires and art,
Skilled theatre renditions, written words, cherry tart,
Strips of green cultured vines, cottage gardens well dug,
Bubbling white local wines, Hollyhocks in a trug

Chalky cliffs, Sussex Blue, fallow deer, bats and stoats,
Ashdown bear, nicknamed Pooh, towering castles with moats,
Sailing craft in the harbours, our magnificent coast,
Sussex teas under arbours, we have so much to boast

Then a gift, quite the best, from the day that they marry,
A Duke to a Duchess, now our Meghan and Harry,
So this sixteenth of June, take a moment to say
“We remember our fortune on this Sussex Day”