A poem about Derek by Les Barker: (with Les' permission - hope Derek doesn't mind)

I have catalogued my friends and my relations;
Through their characters there runs a common thread.
It seems that everyone I know today is younger;
I knew some people who were older but they're dead.

I have wandered my address book and it strikes me
If I can't recall their death, I knew their birth;
Among my elders there is only one survivor;
He saw tyrannosaurus walk the earth:

Nobody's as old as Derek Brimstone;
And Derek will be here when we are gone.
He once said - he's not a liar - he saw Man inventing Fire
But he never thought to put the banjo on.

Each day it seems more bits of me don't work;
Each day it seems I'm coming more untied;
My waist has been misplaced; I can't make hay, I can't make haste;
I knew some people who were older but they died.

Derek knew the mighty redwood as a sapling;
Derek knew the artist later known as Prince.
He knew King Harold when alive in the year 1065
But he hasn't seen a lot of Harold since.

Nobody's as old as Derek Brimstone;
He pre-dates Charlie Chaplin by a mile;
Not many had the chance to see Wilson and Keppel dance,
But Derek.......... he was Betty for a while.

I have seen on film the first Wembley Cup Final;
Derek, it would seem, was at the game;
Some say that Derek knew Lloyd George's father;
Some say they're in fact one and the same.

Noah, it is said, sent forth a budgie;
"Tell me where the drier patches are."
It returned and told the chief, in tones of total disbelief;
"I've just seen an old bloke with a guitar."

Nobody's as old as Derek Brimstone;
He doesn't fade away; he's marching on.
Gloria Gaynor may survive, but Derek too will be alive,
And asking:"Gloria; where's everybody gone?"

Long before Caruso sang, when syne was neither auld nor lang,
Around the time West Ham last won the Cup,
They say Sir Isaac Newton rang for Del's advice on the Big Bang
And Derek answered "It was loud; it woke me up."

When God was getting on with Eden Project number one,
Derek was around, you understand;
He came early on the scene - he's in Genesis, twelve, eighteen -
Which was long before Phil Collins joined the band.

Nobody's as old as Derek Brimstone;
He recalls the bow and arrow and the spear,
The wheel, the flood, Prince Albert and the dodo,
And when all of us have gone, he'll still be here.

I'm looking forward to seeing them both at Lincoln even more now!