The taste of salt on the tongue Kids gone to uni now empty nester Husband in marketing doing well Always wanted to write Met a small press woman Now I got a pamphlet Next year a prize Discovering a new poet every day over coffee in Waterstones Elizabeth Bishop is amazing I really struggled with…
politics
#nationalpovertyday
New Poems: Dead Centre
DEAD CENTRE If England was a target and you were looking at cross hairsIn the centre of the cross hairs would probably be DidcotThe most normal town in England according to the pollstersThe 11th worst place to live according to crap towns My home town, the town my family still live in, die inA town…
Thames Valley Texas
I shall be reading from new Horseshoe Press pamphlet ‘Thames Valley Texas’ next Tuesday at the Organ Grinder on Open Books second birthday. Without the hard work of the T S Eliot of Bus Drivers there would be no Open Book so thank you Neil Fulwood here’s to the next two years… http://www.openbook.org.uk/
FOSSILS: Dark Weather
The playgrounds were strewn with ashSmoke still billowed from the underpassFurther out in the estuary steam roseFrom the tanker now beached and rusting Lights now only flickered around the estateOn every other day to conserve energyMilk floats converted to run on steamCarried bodies of those who froze Up the icy streets to the crematoriumThe one…
Organ Grinder Reading
GRASS CLOUDS : 20 years on the poetry bench.
I will be offering this as a free download from this evening as it Bastille day.GRASS CLOUDS contains everything I have written as ‘poetry’ since I arrived in Nottingham in 2002 so about 20 years worth Contains 80 poems and some illustrations. I will be reading from it on Tuesday August 2nd at the Organ…
PRIVILEGE: Thames Valley Texas
Privilege Is mine and always will be it is my birth-rightI am born to this and never shall let it slipI am the world king and God’s chosen oneTo let go of power is to betray you all I will make the problems disappearAll it takes is character as my masters told meDrilled with a…
My Back Pages: Collateral
COLLATERAL (for D.D.) Windows shake, tyres screech Litter blows across the estate Gunshots ricochet as sound The Divis Flats, Brixton Market Beirut, Jerusalem, Sarajevo A baby cries, a baby cries The broadcast stops, the helicopter hovers There’s a smell of cordite, a cold wind A face you have seen before on the news Starting to…
The Function of Criticism
I have spent the afternoon reading the beginning of Yvor Winters ‘The Function of Criticism’ which I acquired about 30 years ago. I also read a couple of interesting articles online. The first by the poet David Yezzi is interesting and makes a case for his continuing relevance. The second is a wider career over-view…