The North Field You lying exhausted in another room, me taping,trying to drag some of the past with me.Three stories up in West LondonI think of old friends, forgotten journeysand the cracked ceiling reminds me of iceand cars swish beyond the stained curtains. You say I never talk, never explain thingsclam-up, freeze-up, a tight-lipped Englishman.You…
working class poetry
England Swings: Thames Valley Texas
No not a reference to Sergeant Pepper that was 20 but out of curiosity here an unseen poem from 1991. Ah, but I was so much older then I’m younger than that now.. ENGLAND SWINGS Soho doorway, December ’66sleet melting on daisy-patternedplastic raincoat, seeping to salt linesup purple suede slip-onsHer front teeth bite her bottom lipas…
The last great White Elephant
In 1986 or thereabout I bought the Carver stories above from a shop in Plymouth whilst visiting my sister. It was the start of my obsession with all things ‘Americana’. I moved on via Granta’s Dirty Realism collection to a whole series of American authors including Lorrie Moore, Bobbie Anne Mason and then backwards towards…
My First Telephone Call: Thames Valley Texas
The new grey phone in the hallThat never rangUntil one day nervouslyI had to answer It was my uncle from SpainHis father had died that morningWhilst he was on holiday My first conversation was cut short“Yes dead, your dad is dead”. Silence and then a sobThen his wife Sue saying “We’re coming home”. I could…
My Father’s Things: Thames Valley Texas
The series of illustrated poems titled ‘My Father’s Things’ are complete. They include ephemera related to the objects. The whole sequence are the first time I have attempted to deal in writing with the loss of my father aged 72 to pancreatic cancer in 2004. I was infuenced by my reading of Richard Ford and…
My Father’s Things: The Watch: Thames Valley Texas
My Father’s Watch A gold Limit Silhouette watch leather strap hardly wornA dress watch for a man who never dressed always workingMost times he didn’t carry a watch as it would be get damagedor snagged whilst working..too dangerous… A man who cheated death twice..first a burst duodenal ulcerI remember him being taken in the ambulanceIt…
My Father’s Things: The Optical Level: Thames Valley Texas
I am currently working on a project called ‘My Father’ s Things’ which is a series of drawings I did last year to stay sane amidst the chaos of my life then..don’t ask…the chaos has departed and is now far away. This is the first draft of the first poem that I plan to attach…
Fishing in Fog: Thames Valley Texas
FISHING IN FOG A winter Sunday, fog and frost Two figures climbing a stile Boots crunching crisp grass underfoot Head toward the Thames at Clifton My father not yet seventy, still working And I back home for a day’s fishing Struggling with tackle and reels in the cold Sit expecting nothing, no fish bite in…
Burning Books – hiding in plain view?
Last year I did a reading for Nottingham Poetry Festival in which I produced a small ‘polemical’ pamphlet called ‘Burning Books’. The pamphlet was a one off and most of the poems after ‘outing’ in paper form were then hidden away as ‘too political’ for my readers by myself! I censored myself which crazy but…
Man With No Name – poetry V song
An authentic?( Adrian Slatcher)song that is a poem in disguise written in mid 1980s when I harboured ambitions to be the English Nick Cave 🙂 The song ok the ambition a little over ambitious:-) The war in question is the Falklands and the story true my step-grandad died of a heart attack in his pantry…