Gosport great-grandfather gets letter from Sir David Attenborough after sending global warming poem

Concerned about our impact on the environment, 81-year-old Adrian Cutler penned a poem about global warming and sent it to the famous naturalist to see what he thought.

Not expecting much of a response, Adrian was over the moon to receive a short personal letter written back from Sir David, thanking Adrian for the poem and encouraging him to get his words published.

‘I have written lots of poetry and it has gone all over the world,’ said Adrian, who shares his poetry on Facebook and has fans as far afield as South Africa.

He added: ‘I keep listening to David Attenborough and he is so brilliant. It’s so obvious to me, like most people, we can’t go on this way. All this global warming going on won’t stop because man won’t let it stop.

‘I’d written a poem about global warming so I thought I’d send it to him and see what he thinks. I didn’t expect him to write a reply, I thought it might be a printing.’

The retired bricklayer has lived a life full of interesting experiences, which he channels into his poetry books.

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The octogenarian lived through the bombing in World War Two, went blind for a short while when he was 69 and even spent some time living on the streets of Manchester, which has all fuelled his verses.

Adrian, who was originally inspired to write poetry because of his first grandchild more than 30 years ago, said: ‘Before every poem I have written the reason for writing it - every poem I have written has got a story to it.

‘All I need is one word, it sticks in my brain and I think I’ll write a poem about it.’

This Land, by A P Cutler

This land in devastation how are we to understand, the things that now have happened to our green and pleasant land,

The air so hot and merciless the rough seas rising high, above a cloudless heaven where birds no longer fly,

The flowers have all perished and now no longer grow, the trees lay bare and wasted dead branches hanging low,

The hot sun shows no mercy with ne'er a brief respite, just one continuous day time no more dark and cooling night,

The grass now brown and withered across a barren floor, where once it grew so lush and green, but alas it grows no more,

All living things have perished upon this unforgiving earth, no human being existing no one left now to give birth,

Every thing that gave out life now withered dry and burnt, the warning signs were there to see but we humans never learnt,

All that nature had to give man took it in his hand, destroying everything he touched to leave this dry and barren land.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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