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…
GRASS CLOUDS: Twenty Years on the Poetry Bench.
I have been collating a selection of poems written since coming to Nottingham in 2002. It hasn’t been a particularly inspiring location for my poetry and hardly anybody realises I actually published in 2010. I surprised to find 96 poems in 20 years which was my yearly output back in the 1990s. So once I…
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…
SUBSTITUTE
A poem about a true story. I do not know if anybody still alive would remember it. I have a vague memory as a child. The match was organised by Ernie Butler who was then working as a driver at Smiths Crisps on the Trading Estate Station Road in Didcot and the club was the…
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…
Looking Like A Poet: Thames Valley Texas
The agency have been at work again He just didn’t look like a poet so they set to work Told him to lose a few pounds and get a new stylist The shabby chic look to match his fake poverty lyrics Helped sell the gig and books in the provinces Bolstered the teenage girl clickbait…
Knowing my place: Thames Valley Texas
Doff your cap, Toe the line,Do a good job,Know your place,Speak when spoken to,Don’t talk back, keep mum, Be reliableHold your knife properly,Don’t leave the table until told to,Watch your step, March in time, Defer to your betters, Salute the flag,Be punctual, Do a good job, Never argue, Be polite, Bow,Scrape,Be invisible. If you do…
The Moon Turned Dark: Dark Weather
Moon Turned Dark MOON TURNED DARK (LG Revised version) June 1783 a balloon of hot air made of paper is launched then a test of silk and hydrogen that travels 15 miles before crashing into the minds of two peasants who attack the monster despite the authorities appeal not to be scared of these globes…
Loops: Thames Valley Texas
Loops Sparkling green walls covered in frosted websA thousand hedges grid-locked our estate at dawnOctober school-runs on foot, lawns damp with dewWe’d strip privet sticks and collect them in loops One web on top of another until a sticky shiveringVibrated in our hands, dew running down stalk to palm.We knew nothing then, spun our own…