Some people are evidently puzzled by the wearing of white poppies; this song offers an explanation. Starting out as a poem, the first line presented itself to me as ‘Down in yon forest’, a Derbyshire carol set for choir by R.Vaughan Williams; I sang it as a choirboy. The original words feel truly lyrical, and mine are intentionally clunkier; but, in this recording, made by my daughter Jessica singing straight into her computer, I hope my debt to the original comes over as properly respectful.