"Thank God, there were a few good things at university,

But most of it was just cramming to fit the system,

A political job for the sake of the people at the top,

As usual. Now, if we were educated to live,

That would be something: taught to be happy:

To be happy parents, that would be something.

To make this world a bit brighter, and make each other laugh.

Anything for a laff."

ADMIRABLE sentiments: all the more so for being written by a retired lecturer in education.

York bard Ray Stevens -"I am, I think, the only New Earswick poet!" he says - veers in his poems between anger at the failure of institutionalised education, and a desperate wish that things could be better. But time and again he manages, with a homely but well-chosen phrase, to catch at a truth that we will all recognise.

The verses in his self-published volume Contrasts range over politics, religion, war and animal welfare. At their most effective - such as in a simple poem about flies buzzing in a window - they take common experiences and use them to meditate about the value of life. His poems aren't always comfortable, but they do make you think. And there's no doubt that, whether or not he's the only one in New Earswick, Ray Stevens is a genuine poet.

Contrasts is on sale at the reference department at York Central Library, at New Earswick, Haxby and Huntington libraries, Guppy's Enterprise Club in Nunnery Lane and New Earswick Post Office.

Updated: 09:36 Wednesday, September 24, 2003