Posts Tagged ‘Poems’

Tiger

10Jul08

Inspired by a photo that accompanied an obituary of Emma Humphreys.  Published in Let’s Shout About It, an anthology to raise funds for support services for survivors of sexual abuse, and on ABCTales.com.   Tiger (from a photo accompanying Emma Humphreys’ obituary) Emma called you Tiger: a big name for a little cat. Her case [...]


Triggered by a poem I read in a magazine.  I modestly thought I could make a more imaginative treatment of the themes it raised.  I got carried away.  Published in Fire magazine.   Seven Traducements of a Stolen Poem (1) for Ryan Robbins Teacher don’t know our word for praise. She thinks it’s wicked. She [...]


Julie

10Jul08

“A biography in 18 lines”, featured on a bookmark to celebrate National Poetry Day by Leicester and Leicestershire Libraries.   Julie Wore kitten-heeled boots skin-tight jeans, studded belt and a leather jacket, feather-cut blonde hair with heavy kohl and mascara to age her blue eyes. Huddles on a park bench at midnight. There’s a gap [...]


Jean Rhys, best known for “Wide Sargasso Sea”, wrote about women in the 1920s and 1930s, this poem tries the capture the spirit of some of her novels.  Originally published in Exit 21: Poems Selected by Ian McMillan.   Good Morning Midnight (after Jean Rhys) This hostel room is bare. The remaining wallpaper, wallflower-like, refuses [...]


Sitting in the lobby of Hotel Leningrad (in 1996) waiting for a friend led to an offer of free champagne… too good to be true?  Originally published in The Journal of Contemporary Anglo-Scandinavian Poetry.  Also included in “Yellow Torchlight and the Blues”.   Free Champagne in St Petersburg In the lobby waiting for Amanda, while [...]


After the Gig

10Jul08

Originally published in the Featured Poet section of Poetry Monthly.   After the Gig I – The Fan He stands, charcoal grey pinstriped suit still immaculate although the white shirt cuffs are now grubby, amongst feedback and roadies; isolated in imposed idleness. Long, bony fingers push jet black hair from his mask-like face, not sure [...]


The Light Forecast ” Here is the light forecast at 0600 BST. Patchy light in the West more general in the South and East, some of it prolonged and heavy leading to localised floodlighting. (light shines in the darkness even if the darkness cannot understand it). Scattered darkness over Northern Ireland and the West of [...]


Yellow Torchlight and the Blues (Bristol)   The Old Duke stands between the Llandogger Trow and the harbour. Inside Saturday night shines dull on yellowed walls through beer-fumed tobacco-fog.  Cramped in a corner  the drummer’s invisible  but the beat’s real  driving below  the pit of conversation.  Musicians appear as blind watchers  sensing their way through [...]



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