England (Remove filter)
England [Stop the Boots!]
…and did those boots in World War time,
Stamp around England’s pleasant land:
And were those Blackshirt fascist sods,
From Cable Street off-seen!
Never did we countenance a time,
When journalists would see th’ Old Bill!
At dawn, a-knocking on their doors,
For telling truth, with fear instilled!
We must not cease Evil to Fight,,
Nor must my pen sleep in my hand...
Monday 2nd September 2024 12:48 pm
Auroral Resonance
Solar flares in tempest spent, Earth's veil angrily torn,
Charged plasma dances, skyward flight, in fury born.
Emerald and crimson, a painter's dream, strokes the night,
Aurora's dance, magnetic wraiths, violet light
Transient beauty, fleeting flare for eyes to adore,
In silence held, earth meets sun's magnetic core.
Sunday 12th May 2024 2:50 am
Six Nations Time
Six Nations wake from slumber
As winter turns to Spring
For tribal warfare on the pitch
It’s a Celts and Saxons thing
They’ll be singing hymns and arias
From the Tiber to the Tay
And the week feels that much longer
As we wait for Saturday
And the squads are called together
From places far and wide
There will be sunshine and foul weather
There will be shir...
Sunday 21st January 2024 12:42 pm
Kidnap in Venice - Here comes the W.I.
On the Grand Canal in Venice
where bridges span and sigh
There’s a rising sense of menace
Here comes the W.I.
They’re oblivious to the sandbags
Stacked against an inundation
As they wield their leather handbags
And march in tight formation
At the head of them is Norah
The bravest and the best
The other girls adore her
In their phalanx, ten abreast
...
Saturday 21st October 2023 5:44 pm
A Pride Of Lionesses
The European champions
Hold the world in their hands
Bring it home
Bring it home
Comes the chant from the stands
The breath of England
Heaves shallow in wait
But, these Lionesses
Are the key to our fate
They have passion & strength
And a will to achieve
Each heart & each soul
Worn firmly on sleeve
For 57 years
We've huffed & we've puf...
Saturday 19th August 2023 1:56 pm
SAMARITAN
SAMARITAN
__________
Anyone else
Would've left that Far Right
Reactionary sprawled on the concrete
To bleed out, suffer in his
Paroxysms of serious hurt, receive
Disaster of the steel-toed kind.
But not you.
The Good Samaritan
Reflex kicked in,
Wouldn't let you
Abandon someone in need of help.
Distinctions such as
"Friend" and "foe" did...
Tuesday 20th September 2022 5:43 pm
England, low tide
All the fuckin’ country
is tense about some dead duck football game
tonight at 8 pm (or so I’m told).
The sea it slinked away but turned again
and stealthily manoeuvres to reclaim
the mudflats populated by the clumsy
clumps of seals. They loiter, lolled
like slack balloons, like lard
collapsing down to chip fat on the hob.
But we, we sit up straight: our sofa, st...
Tuesday 10th August 2021 10:14 am
The Pride
The Pride
Huzzah!
This old and gummy English lion
Feeding on the tears of little girls.
Finding its bravery in packs
Of like-minded scavengers
Who prowl and growl
And claim a foul
For every perceived slight
In history.
Huzzah! Hurrah!
We won a contest
Prejudiced by racist taunts
And sieg-Heil accusations
By the Nazis
Towards the reconciled.
...Friday 2nd July 2021 3:12 pm
SERAPH WINGS
SERAPH WINGS
____________
She--English student-to-be
He--Art student
Accessorised well in cool black
Clothes as two roving assassins would
But they weren't assassins
They were just young, creative, self-expressive
Goths in love, bonded souls
With a beautiful future ahead of them
They both enjoyed the quietude before midnight
In a walk through Stubbylee Park--
...
Monday 24th May 2021 4:32 pm
England in My Head
I was made in England
And charged with English blood
In England born and bred
I’ve got England in my head
I’ve walked on English lanes
And breathed in English air
It’s English ground I tread
And I’ll be English until I’m dead
I’m English through and through
And England lives in me
And its English blood that’s in my veins
And an Englishman I...
Sunday 2nd May 2021 8:06 pm
Green Man
The Celtic Spring begins today, so Happy Imbolc.
__________________
Green Man
on a ceramic head
by Paula Zimmermann
I know that you must be there,
innocent divine,
although at first I cannot see;
your martyrdom, daily,
amidst brick, steel, and glass
goes almost un-noticed
and has made us blind.
We have all but buried you.
But then I find ...
Monday 1st February 2021 6:13 pm
The melodic grass
This music,
it makes me want to fall from the water
float in the sky,
stare at those lips
and kiss those green eyes,
drink from the clouds
and jump on the pond
to feel the stars
and gaze at the stones,
the rythms , the notes
melt my mind
ignite my visible voice
I'm not here nor there
maybe inside a void
floating on the blues
maybe its a d...
Monday 14th December 2020 8:23 pm
Amy Johnson
Penetrating through soft light clouds: airspace; blended for all who dare to impress.
Assiduous Amy Johnson did just that: a derring-do role model: a legacy;
relative in the minds of many that still lives on.
Renowned for her solo flight: London to Australia in 1930.
Transcended the hitherto, male domination, seizing world-recognition.
Flying away from ground possessions, flying amongst the s...
Sunday 26th July 2020 7:13 pm
Layered Cake
Layered Cake
I’ve known many unsavory characters from my home city of Manchester
There’s the ex-demolition guy who took a great dislike to me
Did he have visions of blowing me up instead of my old car?
He had a trainee apprentice in the wings and had connections
I knew several football hooligans who fought for what?
For England, their home team, themselves, for violence?
...
Wednesday 26th December 2018 11:59 am
Rule Britannia?
What with all the omnishambles of Brexit, I got to thinking about what our national identity really is. When you think about it, we have some pretty bizarre national symbols, but ultimately what does it mean to be British / English, etc? See what you think of this...
Rule Britannia?
Our national dish is curry, true,
Our Saint is George who dragons slew,
From Yorkshire field...
Thursday 18th October 2018 8:54 pm
Our Lions
Take down the flags
Wind in the bunting
It's not our time
We know it's not coming
Or shop fronts and homes
Will soon seem empty
But the sea of St George
Will be a glorious memory
Hold your head high
As echoes of cheers ring loud
Faith restored;
You've done us all proud
This time was different
You wrote your own story
A summer of hope
A dalliance with glory
You've brought us passion
...
Thursday 12th July 2018 11:50 am
WORLD CUP 1966 personal recollections
WORLD CUP 1966 personal recollections
Blue dressed bridesmaid
Bolt down the food, get through the speeches.
Drink up the wine – what’s the time?
Time to put down the serviettes.
Time to …………
Tension is building - Tighter, harder, bolder
The groom, the best man and every one of the ushers are at the starting gate.
More interested in the future than the present.
...
Saturday 7th July 2018 5:06 pm
Country file
Lets open up the country file
Lets find a place to go
Get up close to nature
Weather sun or rain or snow
Valley, lake or mountain
There is beauty all around
Yorkshire dale or Lake District
The jewels in Britain’s crown.
Lets get up close to nature
Lets go and explore
On foot or bike or horse back
In land or by the shore
England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales
There...
Saturday 26th May 2018 5:19 pm
Lads
Lads
In three months’ time it will happen
The World Cup battleground
Taking place in Putin’s Neo Soviet Russia
England’s finest hooligans will meet
The paramilitary trained enemy Ultras
Who are pumped up steroid pimps
Wearing Sports Direct trashy gear
They claim there’ll be many dead Brits
My bet is on a few dead Russkis too
Bring it all on for this is the natural ord...
Wednesday 4th April 2018 6:10 am
Saudade
Saudade is one of those inexpressible words, Portuguese in this case. The clearest meaning or definition I can come up with is 'melancholic nostalgia' or the like. This is my attempt to take that thought one step further.
The poem is best read by first reading the non-italicised stanzas, followed by the italicised ones.
Saudade
Proteus, Old Man of the Sea,
Neptune's shepherd...
Thursday 16th February 2017 4:08 am
The Unicorn to the Lion / The Lion to the Unicorn
The Unicorn to the Lion
By Robert C. Mackie
The Lion and the Unicorn once fighting for the Crown,
Now, Lion, said the Unicorn, this fighting’s got me down.
Please keep your Barnett Formula, and all One Nation Tories,
Keep antisocial myopia and national fairy stories.
‘Cos Scotland’s a nation, although you doubt, social justice is its charter,
Smith and Hume its philosophers, no need f...
Wednesday 3rd August 2016 4:27 am
DO YOU REMEMBER MY ENGLAND? - a re-post
Do you remember my England?
When people said "How do you do?"
And most of them were folk you knew,
And everybody joined a queue...
I do.
Do you remember my England?
When people seemed to care and share
And it was just not done to stare,
And barbers used to cut your hair...
I do.
Do you remember my England?
When "addict" meant a pinball fan
And workmen ...
Wednesday 25th February 2015 3:42 pm
Hatred Junkie
Fake nostalgia spews out from your head
For a sepia England that was never there
Hatred junkie, you know
Where the blood river flows
Feel the bile at your knees
Marching bands drown out your higher brain
Blaring voices drive your soul insane
Hatred junkie, you feel
Like a cog on a wheel
Grinding so out of time – after time
God made you useless
...Tuesday 18th June 2013 1:03 pm
Sonnet for Drummer Lee Rigby, posted on behalf of Robin Parker from Langley Writers
Friday 14th June 2013 5:50 pm
Irregular Apocalypse
“Got 10p for a cup of tea?”
“If you show us where you can get one for that price,
I'll give you a quid”
He never did...
Irregular Apocalypse.
Lonely and irksome.
The bitter glow of jaundice
tears at society's rustic chains,
one tragedy at a time.
“The Freemasons took my children,
they took my baby.”
Now she's hopping magic buses,
...Thursday 4th April 2013 9:41 pm
What do you do with a drunk in GAY bar? - NaPoWriMo Day 3
What do you do with a drunk in GAY bar,
What do you do with a drunk in GAY bar,
What do you do with a drunk in GAY bar,
Early in the morning!
Way hay and up she rises
Way hay and up she rises
Way hay and up she rises
Early in the morning!
Tell 'im, “sorry, it's members only”,
Tell 'im, “sorry, it's members only”,
Tell 'im, “sorry, it's members only”,
Early i...
Thursday 4th April 2013 8:20 pm
England
Monday 16th July 2012 8:18 pm
Tumbledown
On Tumbledown, no doubting of our love,
No bishopric’s accusing finger points,
Proclaiming: ‘Gays can’t die for God above,
Or marry Harry, Jessica or George’!
No holy men in dresses and big hats,
Will stem this bloody flow, or hold my hand,
Or sing my soul aloft; no music wafts
Along the breeze from England’s pleasant land.
Are you still there, Jim? God, it’s blo...
Sunday 10th June 2012 11:37 am
ENGLISH LANDSCAPES
ENGLISH LANDSCAPES
Here in our English country there is a broad range of scenery,
Form the ancient greenery of an oak wood to the gently flowing
rivers of the lowlands, this is a country of many moods and colours.
There are hills and marshes, mountains and lakes all with wild life galore.
Everyone is pleased to see such graceful scenes if out walking or quietly s...
Monday 12th December 2011 4:43 pm
DO YOU REMEMBER MY ENGLAND?
Do you remember my England?
When people said "How do you do?"
And most of them were folk you knew,
And everybody joined a queue...
I do.
Do you remember my England?
When neighbours seemed to care and share,
And it was just not done to stare,
And "barbers" used to cut your hair...
I do.
Do you remember my England?
When "addict" meant a pin-...
Sunday 6th November 2011 3:54 pm
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