Stags poet reads iconic Mansfield poem to football fans

Richard C Bower, the official poet for Mansfield Town Football Club, recited his well known work in front of around 7,000 fans at the Bristol Rovers game on Saturday.

His reading was during the football season’s return during the first match following the easing of lock-down restrictions.

The crowds clapped and cheered, after Richard recited the poem which evokes memories of Mansfield’s ‘glorious days’.

Richard is a former Queen Elizabeth boys’ school pupil (now the Queen Elizabeth Academy, in Mansfield) and has written poetry all his life.

The 45-year-old originally from Mansfield, who previously worked as a careers adviser, living at Whitwell, has just completed a Master’s Degree in Journalism in Leeds.

He has written several collections of poems, and his work has featured in Amazon’s Top 50 ‘Inspirational Books’ category.

Richard said: “I wrote the poem for the club and the town, around the start of the original pandemic. It was always understood that I would be invited to recite it at the match on Saturday.

"It was an absolutely brilliant experience, I got a fantastic response from the fans, many were saying they now want me to do it at every home match.

"Even people not from Mansfield have said the feelings the poem evokes sends shivers down their spines.

"It was one of Mansfield Football Club’s biggest attendances since 1977 and my adrenalin was really pumping, I nervous, scared I might freeze in front of such a big crowd of about 7,000 people, but it went really well, I don’t think it could have gone any better.”

Richard is currently working on his third book, ‘An Expedition Around My Garden,’ which he describes as a “philosophical, personal and literal journey.”

Read Richard’s poem ‘This is Mansfield’ here:

Golden amber shines

Upon the roof tops of our proud town

Projecting a parade

Of glorious days

Of Bird, Arnold, Clarke and Pate

A cast of vibrant hues

In amber and blue

Mansfield Town we love you

And enduring tides

That fall and rise

With the emotional pull

Of Mansfield pride

I recall the heroic cry

Of '87

At Wembley Stadium

And the magic of Ian Greaves' side

And let

Us not forget

The headline makers of '69

When footballing royalty

Were sent home packing

And the World Cup winners were given a hammering!

And in later years Greens goals aided our return to the league

From Quarry Lane to Bishop Street

Our stadium echoes

With the sound of bellowing 'Yellows!'

Mansfield Town - we love you

Wagstaff, Kent, Foster, McCaffrey

All interwoven and populate our history

Gracing our grass at the worlds oldest professional ground

From 1897

As Mansfield Wesleyan

This club

Is built on grit, guile and graft

Reflecting our community

And in the image of the Stag

The centre piece of our badge -

A sacred animal

A symbol

Of authority

Throughout the decades we stand strong

As a bastion of Mansfield

War, industry, pandemic

None overcome - trials we face and we prevail

Together we keep on striving

For we are Mansfield - a small town with a big heart

As we look to the legends of the future

And towards those who will make their name

In the colour of amber and blue

And the sun continues to shine

Golden

Upon the roof tops of our proud town

For this is our town

This is our home

This is Mansfield

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