Bert Richard was a much loved Principal Teacher of Art at Girvan Academy. He died in 1989 at the age of 46 leaving behind fond memories, many poems and much art work. These pages are an apprectiation of Bert's poems and art work. They are incomplete at the moment but will be expanded over the next few months to include a full biography and many more of his poems - this page is just a taster of things to come....

The Fisherman	A small boat with two men on board in yellow oilskins vivid against a grey slate sea, chugging along just a few yards from the shore, from where I stood beachcombing.
		Perched high in the bow a black dog gazing out to sea, slowly the boat passed by, and I continued walk along the shore. Returning, my pockets bulging with stones and shells and pieces of broken crab, I saw the small boat beached and the old fisherman bowlegged, blue-smocked, bring a few silver fish ashore. "Yes, I've used the same line for fifty tear" Hi friend walked up the shore, and the old man returned to the boat, the bow legs balanced, he genty pushed the boat off the stones, the gentle hollow grating of the keel.
			Punting the oar on the one side, drifting round to the mouth of the harbour, an ancient rhythm, like the slow swoop of the gull, A man, a boat, the sea. Printed in the GlasgowHerald January 25, 1975

The Moon and I		I thought I hearda car the other night outside the door, but instead I found the moon asking to come inside. I would have let him come in, rolled him round the floor sat him by the fire cushioned to stop him rolling and watched his large roun face light up the room, asked him if he liked cheese, or did the cow really manage to jump over him, was he responsible for so much love, or did he mind astronauts picking about his skin why did he play hide and seek and pull the tide behind im along the shore, no he did not grant madness, he said smiling, only this night is for you and I. Printed in Frank, Paris 1984