Poetry Blog by Ian Whiteley
Messiah Of The Fields
Messiah Of The Fields
They left me hanging on a cross
The saviour of the summer crops
Just rag and straw so no great loss
My blood is in the wheat and hops
I faced the black and vicious hoard
Their coal cruel eyes and sharpened beaks
I am the ragged overlord
Who scares the crow yet never speaks
They pray to me to save their soils
From dark boned devils ...
Sunday 27th September 2020 11:21 am
Britannia Waives The Rules
Britannia Waives The Rules
Rule Britannia?
Britannia waives the rules
Encourages returning to the pubs
Puts students back in schools
One rule for the inebriated
One to avoid uneducated fools
The slavering wolf of commerce
Rolls its bloodshot eyes and drools
Britain’s never, never, never
Shall be slaves?
Burying its vulnerable
In Covid-shallow graves
...Friday 11th September 2020 2:56 pm
Aching All Over
Aching All Over
My back aches and my head aches
And my eyes ache in bright light
My arms ache and my hands ache
When I go to bed at night
But when anybody asks me
I just say that ‘I’m alright’
Aching All Over
My ears ache when I listen
To those heavy metal hits
My stomach aches after a curry
My arse aches after the shits
My toes and fingers ache
As ...
Sunday 6th September 2020 5:25 pm
The Mound
The Mound
It started way back when I was a child
One cold November night in sixty-four
Old furniture and windfall from the trees
Piled high into a mound of combustibles
Each year new kindling was added to ashes
That had smudged the verdant back garden lawn
Layer upon layer added to the blackened hill
That was gradually growing towards the sky
One year I lo...
Wednesday 2nd September 2020 2:41 pm
To The Saint Of Lost Causes
To The Saint Of Lost Causes
Melancholy Monday
Brown sugar blues
In the same vein
As your father
But you never made it
Across the river
To the other side
When you combine
The names of flawed giants
Who have fallen by the wayside
More than once
There is a grim
Divination
You leave us
Those sweet moments
From the Tennessee sun
To ...
Tuesday 25th August 2020 2:36 pm
Turning Mirrors
Turning Mirrors
Roll up, Roll Up
For the job swap circus
Where the occupations
Of minor celebrities
Drawn to the power
Of politics
Are filled by the learned
Men they depose
Hanz Folckhart the physicist
Walks on a tightrope
Whilst juggling the balls
Of the theory of gravity
Bernard Bochelli a notable chemist
Throws great custard pies
At the blo...
Wednesday 19th August 2020 12:41 pm
The Bayonet In The Shed [REPOST with audio]
I'm reposting this poem with the audio I recorded of it (as a song) to commemorate my father and the other soldiers who fought during WW2 in Asia - The Forgotten Army of Burma - for the 75th Anniversary of VJ Day
The Bayonet In The Shed
He put it there in forty nine,
in a woodworm riddled drawer,
wrapped it in a greasy rag.
A remnant from the war.
On top of it he laid h...
Friday 14th August 2020 4:14 pm
Dog Day
Dog Day
The day was hot
Hot and humid
Stretching out
Into a dog day afternoon
The boy was young
Young and stupid
Stretching out
Beneath the furnace sun
The tarn was cold
Cold and ruthless
Stretching out
Along the sunny banks
The swim was exhilarating
Exhilarating and cooling
Stretching out
And heading for the shore
The tar...
Wednesday 12th August 2020 12:36 pm
Otherness
Otherness
We all know they’re riddled with Otherness
And they’re bringing it over here
I don’t care if they have the same body parts
It’s their Otherness that I fear
They’ll only have to look at you
And you’ll catch their Otherness too
They’ll be lazy, scrounging, Otherness spreading
Heathens – not like me and you
I bet they had lives of champaign and caviar
...Saturday 8th August 2020 3:29 pm
Covid Mary
Covid Mary
This world is made of razorblades and bile
Where every step is dangerous to tread
Bloody footprints stretch out mile after mile
Leading to the bone mansions of the dead
They chew on rotting meat and bitter wine
And breath the fetid air of charnel house
The graveyards filled with beggars is a sign
Of every corrupt moral they espouse
In darkened rooms they ...
Tuesday 4th August 2020 2:21 pm
Curfew
Curfew
Leave the light on – lock the door
This ritual plays out each Friday
A barrier to the debauched reveller
Who slips behind the clock returning home
A curfew for the beer vampire
Who will only find a soothing bed
If father specifically invites him in
After knocking twice and shouting through the letterbox
This ancient tribal face off
Between uprigh...
Friday 31st July 2020 2:33 pm
The Turning Of The Tide
The Turning Of The Tide
Walking along the beach at sunset
A romantic moment at holiday’s end
The sand and condoms slip between our toes
The dying red rays reflecting in rock pools of piss
And glinting off discarded coco-cola bottles
Children collecting the shell-like husks of food cartons
And skimming smooth flat plastic plates into the sea
Surf lapping gently against ...
Tuesday 21st July 2020 11:41 am
Amputation & Education
Amputation & Education
Some wounds won’t scab over
As some wounds never heal
They are infected by colonial blades
That hot irons won’t seal
Puss filled abominations
tainted by avarice and greed
you cannot absolve the guilty knife
whilst open wounds still bleed
You say ‘history was not written in pencil,
You cannot rub it out’
It’s not what it was written ...
Tuesday 14th July 2020 12:08 pm
One Hundred Days In Plague Town
One Hundred Days In Plague Town
I met a man in Plague Town
With bird’s beak and a long black coat
He carried a cane in his left hand
He spoke to me and I quote:
‘Don’t travel far from your fire son
Go runaway and hide
For Fear stalks the streets of Plague Town
Some are ill and others have died’
So I went back home as he told me
And I sat and counted the days
...Thursday 9th July 2020 5:06 pm
Insomniac
Insomniac
The floorboards above
Crack like rheumatic bones
Late at night
The house groans
And wind whispers
Through the open windows
The curtains open
The lights out
The darkness presses
Against the window
A streetlight drops
White light on the path
I can see a pale moon
Crawling through the trees
A cat sashays
Beneath the porch opposi...
Wednesday 8th July 2020 11:36 am
Six Grandfathers
Six Grandfathers
There is a mountain in the Black Hills of South Dakota
Where the sculptor Gutzon Borglum chiselled rock
Into the shape of four gigantic heads
Symbolising birth, growth, development, preservation
Sixty foot high lies on the formation of a nation
Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln
You were not here at this great lands birth
You stole it and sha...
Tuesday 7th July 2020 12:55 pm
Marketplace
Marketplace
This space is like a ghost town
Trestle tables row on row
Echoing with the hustle bustle
Vendors cries of long ago
I held my mother’s hand
And listened to them shout
‘apples sixpence a pound
Come on get your money out!’
Comics stored in cardboard boxes
Toys stacked high on stands
Gleaming in the Friday sun
Just out of reach of sticky h...
Monday 6th July 2020 12:50 pm
Spells
Spells
She paints pebbles with rainbows
And places them on walls
Poetry on larger stones
For others to find
It is a small act of kindness
Of acknowledging our plight
She takes the paints and daubs
Her handprint on a slate
All over the footpaths and walks
Her art is left to the elements
A bright sun shining
through dark clouds
the people wh...
Sunday 5th July 2020 12:30 pm
Old Vic
Old Vic
Once these doors close
The lights are dimmed
They may never open again
The soft ghosts of actors
Fading in our memory
Leaving only distant echoes
The bright gaudy costumes
The greasepaint and powders
All left where they last fell
The empty seats collect dust
The stage becomes a mausoleum
Of tragedy and comedy
Pennies draining ...
Saturday 4th July 2020 1:59 pm
Needles & Thread
Needles & Thread
I remember her sat at an old Singer sewing machine
Turning the handle in the half-light of autumn
Making dresses and skirts for herself
So that precious pennies could be invested in children
She made me a Lone Ranger mask
From remnants of black cloth
She had left from one of her creations
I wore it with pride and a whoop and a holler
When ...
Friday 3rd July 2020 1:59 pm
We Never Suspected A Thing
We Never Suspected A Thing
Serial Killer
Feathers on the patio
Innocent soft eyes
Thursday 2nd July 2020 3:05 pm
You Could Own An Upright Piano
You Could Own An Upright Piano
You could own an upright piano
The newspaper advert said
And although I can’t play one
The words got messing with my head
We had one when I was a young boy
It stood in the front room, unused
Because no one in our house could play it
So it left all our visitors bemused
Well – actually – I could play ‘Chopsticks’
And my gran...
Wednesday 1st July 2020 2:38 pm
Hand Count
Hand Count
Sixty times a minute
I have travelled round this face
Three thousand six hundred times an hour
I have faithfully kept pace
Eighty six thousand four hundred times a day
I’ve ticked along
Six hundred and four thousand eight hundred times a week
Always right and never wrong
Eighteen million one hundred and forty four thousands times an average month
Relen...
Tuesday 30th June 2020 2:08 pm
Bull In A China Shop
Bull In A China Shop
‘all breakages must be paid for’
She told the bull in the china shop
As he stamped his hooves impatiently
And snorted through his ringed nostrils
So he tiptoed around glass cabinets
Admiring the fine white porcelain
The delicate hand painted vases
The plates and cup and saucers
Until he saw the red beating heart
Pumping rhythmically...
Monday 29th June 2020 2:44 pm
The Dig
The Dig
Thousands of years later
They found the sacred site
And used their soft sable brushes
To clear the earth from their finds
Here was what looked like a drinking vessel
Owned by a Covid-19 man called Persil
And look part of a plate with the lettering McDon
So possibly owned by someone from the Northern Zone
Inflation devices with logos of Asda and Lidl
Ancie...
Sunday 28th June 2020 6:17 pm
Eye Of The Storm
Eye Of The Storm
The black clouds gather
Heavy rain drops splat
There is iron on your tongue
The bitter taste of storm
Head thick with thunder
White light splits the sky
The trailing crack rattles windows
A cat cowers beneath a bush
Shivering in its fear
The deluge follows
Straight javelins of rain
You lift your head back
As the heavens empty
Water fi...
Saturday 27th June 2020 2:48 pm
Independence Day
Independence Day
At first they said ‘infect the herd’
but experts told us ‘that’s absurd,
you will cause deaths in the old.
What sort of shepherd risks the fold?’
So they put the cattle in the pen
only to be let out when
the time was right, or so they said,
they didn’t want their people dead.
The woolybacks baa’d and the daft cows moo’d
And farmer Boris calculate...
Friday 26th June 2020 1:52 pm
Lucky Coins
Lucky Coins
It would have been about nineteen seventy-seven
Outside The College pub at ‘Closing Time’
When I nearly stumbled over an old man
Lying by a slate stone wall.
He was dressed in dark clothes and had grey hair
That lay across his face
So that his features were obscured
And he was trying to pull himself up to his feet
I stepped towards him and help...
Thursday 25th June 2020 2:35 pm
Lockdown Birthday
Lockdown Birthday
We walked up from the river
Beneath a canopy of trees
The air was filled with birdsong
On a warm and gentle breeze
The sun was high in the June sky
The road stretched out ahead
We drank some wine together
shared cheese and new baked bread
After lunch we wandered home
The air was hot and hazy
Then we sat around and drunk beer
Refused t...
Wednesday 24th June 2020 12:55 pm
Mask
Mask
Mask
Covers face
Unknown eyes watching
Religious tolerance found wanting
Fear
Mask
Double standards
Stops the spread
Of disease and death
Secure
Tuesday 23rd June 2020 2:03 pm
Save The Planet & Your Heart
Save The Planet & Your Heart
The seed drill not the fracking drill
Will serve our country best
The vegetables not the beasts we kill
Will be humanities test
Plague is never spread
from the fruits of the earth
when we pay such a heavy price
what is a carcass worth?
From cattle, bird or bat
There spreads human disease
Letting the gristle and the fat
Brin...
Monday 22nd June 2020 2:14 pm
Mischievous Pedant
I wanted to wish him happy Fathers Day
But according to pedantic Facebook chatter
I’m not allowed to do that any more
Because hashtag ‘All Parents Matter’
Sunday 21st June 2020 3:28 pm
The Biff!
The Biff!
I’ve seen it happen anywhere
Rochdale on a pouring down Sunday afternoon
Melbourne on a baking hot Saturday
Featherstone on a cold midwinter Friday night
Sydney on a misty winter Wednesday
The Biff!
At the eruption of a scrumdown wrestle
The stiff arm of a bewitched fullback
As a dancing standoff sidesteps his frame
A punch that comes from the seco...
Saturday 20th June 2020 12:56 pm
Creation Myth
Creation Myth
If you were God
You would create a back story
On how you came to be
Something about a mother
And a father coming together
You would gradually create
The world around you
And the history of what went before
In order to keep you sane
You would form existence
to fit your needs
And each thing learned new
Would be to satisfy the r...
Friday 19th June 2020 2:07 pm
Blurry
Blurry
The world through a net curtain
Since the blood vessel burst in my eye
A Jackson Pollock of dark splatter
Swirling and whirling like oil on water
Swooping and looping like dragons
Drifting in ancient skies
One good eye doing the work of two
And suddenly you are vulnerable
Knowing that losing that one too
Would be blindness waiting to happen
So you ...
Thursday 18th June 2020 2:33 pm
Return To Jungle Land
Return To Jungle Land
The windows are thrown open
Somewhere Springsteen’s ‘Jungle Land’
Spreads saxophone and horns
Into the humid north west air
There is sweat and naked flesh
In the room on Mountbatten Avenue
Where young love consummates
On white linen sheets
The rats have deserted the city
Where there are no restaurant takeaways
Cascading from backstre...
Wednesday 17th June 2020 12:39 pm
Chucked
Chucked
Dear Clark - I write this letter as a way to say goodbye,
I know we’ve dated many years and I know I said I’d try
to get over all your little quirks that really drive me mad,
but I can’t, you see, and so for me It’s all ending rather sad.
It’s the way you seem to run away when things are getting tough,
If your penchant to hide in phone boxes wasn’t reason enough
...Tuesday 16th June 2020 2:54 pm
Half Time
Half Time
I was playing centre half
With Athletic five nil up
In a prestigious third round tie
Of the Inter-City Cup
Sunday morning football
After beer the night before
The referee blew for half time
It was a disappointing score
The captain’s girlfriend Elsie
Brought a tray of oranges out
Some of us took one and sucked
And tried to forget the rout
T...
Monday 15th June 2020 2:11 pm
Patriot?
Patriot?
Young Tommy didn’t get irony, cross,
he set off with the boneheads and boots
to guard statues of old Winston Churchill.
Signalling intent with their Nazi salutes.
Sunday 14th June 2020 12:01 pm
The Last Breath Of Evening
The Last Breath Of Evening
The sky is bruised purple at the last breath of evening
The air stilled from violent storms before the last breath of evening
From the new sunrise and the slow burn of a waking day
Stretching ahead in unknown pleasures to the last breath of evening
A day of honest work and muscles that ache
With the strain of reaching the last breath of e...
Saturday 13th June 2020 2:42 pm
Plague Doctor
Plague Doctor
One thing this plague has taught us
Is that close proximity can be lethal
You could be a carrier of ideas
Asymptomatic in their spread
Just your unthoughtful actions
Triggering others to violence
You could infringe on the personal space
Of other people’s beliefs
Carelessly trampling over them
By thinking only of your own gratification
Endang...
Friday 12th June 2020 4:10 pm
Sell Me Something More Than Snake Oil And Lies
Sell Me Something More Than Snake Oil And Lies
They say that pulling down statues
Is rewriting history
As though the sculptors who made them
Were historians
And not some commissioned artist
Doing what he was told
Sell me something more than snake oil and lies
It is a form of history
Cast in the wealthy viewpoint
From the stance of the privileged
It’s...
Thursday 11th June 2020 2:21 pm
New Normal
New Normal
We hang around like statues
At McDonalds and Ikea
We wait in line for haircuts
Or to grab a pint of beer
We stand apart together
Following the six foot rule
We can gather for a shopping trip
But not to go to school
We spy upon our neighbours
And complain at barbeques
We daren’t go too far from the house
Because of lack of loos
We wear a m...
Wednesday 10th June 2020 12:41 pm
Satan's Dustbin
Satan’s Dustbin
Satan, at number 666, is putting out the bins
Which are overflowing with hatred and all of mankind’s sins
The refuse collectors stay away they refuse to go near
Part of it’s the cloying smell and part of it’s just fear
Despite the warning label clearly stating ‘no hot ash’
He insists on putting them in there along with all the trash
The sad truth of his be...
Tuesday 9th June 2020 5:11 pm
Clang!
Clang!
Across the centuries
A clanging sound
The clang of a statue
As it falls to the ground
The clang of ideology
Toppling from its perch
The clang of the chains
And the swish of the birch
The clang of a bell
Ringing across the land
The clang of the people
As they make a stand
The clang of oppression
And the clang of the strange
And the clang...
Monday 8th June 2020 2:53 pm
The Midas Touch
The Midas Touch
I saved the life of Lady Luck
And as a thank you I was told
That all I touched metaphorically
Would surely turn to gold
This gift came with a caveat
That seemed to be quite fair
I mustn’t get too greedy
Or all would turn to despair
And from that day without a doubt
I’ve found this to be true
I’ve won small bets on horseracing
And a game...
Sunday 7th June 2020 1:27 pm
The Truth Of Colour
The Truth Of Colour
The colour of humanity
Is not white skin
Or black skin
Not brown skin
Or yellow skin
It is the red blood
Of a beating heart
A blue shield
Is not the colour of humanity
When it takes a life
And all the greys
of muddled opinions
cannot change the truth
that a man could not breathe
because his skin colour
was...
Saturday 6th June 2020 3:53 pm
Hoodoo
Hoodoo
The hoodoos rested here a while
And turned to face the great Bow River
Rocks and pine trees at their backs
This family of albino giants
Wind hewn and born of the water
White wolves of the sedimentary
Standing on the Inuit trail
That led them from the turqoise tumult
Towering to Alberta skies
That shimmer in the August heat
These monoliths of time s...
Friday 5th June 2020 4:29 pm
Banana Republican
Banana Republican
He’s totally bananas
He’s cowardly custard
He nods like a daffodil
His views are all mustard
He thinks he’s a dandy lion
He’s a long streak of piss
Frail as a buttercup
With acute jaundice
He smells of hell’s sulphur
His hair is fake blonde
And he looks like old weeds
That died in a pond
He tweets like a canary
That’s ...
Thursday 4th June 2020 2:18 pm
It Rained Today
It Rained Today
It rained today
Breaking the strangling heat
But it wasn’t a cleansing rain
It didn’t dilute the colour of our skin
Or wash away the blood on our streets
It just soaked
The lonely man erecting barricades
So that McCars could McQueue for McBurgers
As consumerism kicked back in
And the deluge began
The air felt clearer though
Cracked...
Wednesday 3rd June 2020 12:03 pm
Recent Comments
raypool on Messiah Of The Fields (10 hours ago)
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M.C. Newberry on Britannia Waives The Rules (1 day ago)
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Ian Whiteley on Britannia Waives The Rules (1 day ago)
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Greg Freeman on Britannia Waives The Rules (Fri, 11 Sep 2020 05:44 pm)
Robert Haigh on The Mound (Fri, 11 Sep 2020 04:12 pm)
Ian Whiteley on Aching All Over (Fri, 11 Sep 2020 02:58 pm)