Poetry

It goes on one at a time,
it starts when you care to act,
it starts when you do it again after they said no,
it starts when you say we and know who you mean,
and each day you mean one more.

Marge Piercy

Sunday, 02 August 2020 09:24

What if there was no divide?

Written by Jane Burn

in Poetry

What if there was no divide? by Jane Burn What if life, for so many of us wasn’t a chasm? You only have a basic understanding. It’s complex – not quite as simple as that. What would the famished do with money, after all? They’d only spend it. Yes. On…

Thursday, 30 July 2020 11:44

Bread and Roses Poetry Award 2020: The winners!

Written by Mike Quille

in Poetry

This year the judges, Andy Croft of Smokestack Books and Mary Sayer from Unite, picked seven rather than five poems which they thought worthy winners of the Award. So Unite have kindly agreed to provide additional prize money this year for all seven poems. The winners are Handbook for 2021…

Wednesday, 29 July 2020 12:43

The cry of the poor from inner-city Dublin: Sacred Symphony

Written by Mike Quille

in Poetry

Sacred Symphony is a new collection of poems on life in inner-city Dublin, by Karl Parkinson, with photographs by Peter O'Doherty. It includes All the Swings are Gone and is introduced by Father Peter McVerry, who conculdes with these words: Those who are economically unproductive are considered a drain on…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Tuesday, 28 July 2020 08:39

Only use words if you have to: Homily of Francis

in Poetry

Written by Geraldine Clarkson

Geraldine Clarkson introduces her new collection When in the last two months before publication of my first full poetry collection, Monica’s Overcoat of Flesh — the progress of which had been variously plagued by bereavements, the loss of a home, and complicated publishing scenarios — the final compiling and proofreading…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Wednesday, 15 July 2020 08:30

The possibility of happiness: Maurice Levitas, the Spanish Civil War, and Pablo Neruda

in Poetry

Written by David Betteridge

In the year of the CPB centenary, David Betteridge remembers Maurice Levitas, stalwart of the CPGB and a veteran of Cable St. and the Spanish Civil War You have made me build upon reality as upon a rock...You have made me see the logic of the world and the possibility…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Monday, 06 July 2020 15:47

Living in dark times: the poetry of Bertolt Brecht

in Poetry

Written by Edward Mackinnon

Edward Mackinnon shows how Brecht successfully integrated Marxist theory into his poetic practice “What is robbing a bank compared with founding a bank?” “In the dark timesWill there also be singing?Yes, there will also be singing.About the dark times” “And I always thought the very simplest wordsShould be enough. If…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Monday, 06 July 2020 07:00

Ready to Go to Work

in Poetry

Written by Fred Voss

Ready to Go to Work by Fred Voss A machinist bites into his morning appleas the sun riseson his workbench before him are 1/8th to ½-inch Allen wrenchesfor turning socket-head cap screwstight5/16th to 1-and-¼-inch crescent wrenches for turning any hex-nutin the shopand the apple in his mouth is sweet as…

Sunday, 28 June 2020 16:38

Rogues

Written by Christopher Norris

in Poetry

Rogues by Christopher Norris The most ‘roguish’ of rogue states are those that circulate and make use of a concept like ‘rogue state’, with the language, rhetoric, juridical discourse, and strategico-military consequences we all know. The first and most violent of rogue states are those that have ignored and continue…

Thursday, 25 June 2020 16:18

Past the Pastoral

Written by Martin Rowson

in Poetry

Past The Pastoral by Martin Rowson By now I reckon I'm way past the pastoral,Beyond beguilementImmunised against contagious charms The shallowed streams of dappled glamourContrived to pogrom trout;The hedgerows' anarchism, fecund mutualityShouldered like everything into the margins,Edged out, then forced to fortress theMultiple stab wounds of tilled fields;The monotony of…

Thursday, 25 June 2020 08:58

One law for the rich........

Written by Martin Gollan

in Poetry

Call out - do we have a poem to go with this cartoon?

Robert Jenrick Richard Desmond

Monday, 22 June 2020 14:18

Separate Cells

Written by David Erdos

in Poetry

David Erdos introduces his new collection of poems, downloadable below. The collection is illustrated by Max Crow Reeves, who also made the image above. Coronic Irrigation: An Introduction by David Erdos If an irritation is seen as something that disturbs The smooth surface, thus came Corona to rub And to…

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