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

Monday, 04 September 2017 20:10

Bring the Rising Home!

Written by Owen Gallagher

in Poetry

Owen Gallagher introduces Mike Jenkins's latest poetry collection. Mike Jenkins is a politically active poet of the street, the estate and the countryside. He is also known among Cardiff City Football Club fans as their ‘unofficial poet’. He writes prophetically on behalf of the oppressed in towns and valleys, not…

Saturday, 02 September 2017 12:55

The Trouble with Monsters

Written by Chris Norris

in Poetry

The Trouble with Monsters by Chris Norris Quick way with monsters: send a hero outFor mortal combat: sometimes he'll prevailAnd kill the beast, while other times he'll failAnd it will be his death that ends the bout. The point is, those old poets had it right,Those Greeks, and Romans, and…

Beowulf Grendel Hitler Trump

Tuesday, 29 August 2017 19:48

Grenfell: 'social murder' is that crime's name

Written by David Betteridge

in Poetry

A Blaze That Did Not Need To Burn by David Betteridge I am nothing and I should be everything... - Karl Marx The best part of the building was the people in it. They made of its doomed fabric, homes: homes that for many, at a stroke, in an upward…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Saturday, 26 August 2017 15:38

Grenfell: for the victims

in Poetry

Written by Chris Norris

Author's Note: Joyce Grenfell (1910-1979) was a British actor, singer and stage entertainer who specialised in comic monologues and achieved huge popularity in the decades following World War Two. Among her best-known imaginary monologue-speakers was a teacher of very young children, among them George who was more than once asked…

Grenfell Tower Joyce Grenfell George Osborne

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Wednesday, 02 August 2017 06:00

Pardon

in Poetry

Written by Sheree Mack

Pardon by Sheree Mack The story of Sarah Baartman is the story of the African people....It is the story of the loss of our ancient freedom...(and) of our reduction to the state of objects who could be owned, used and discarded by others - Thabo Mbeki, 2002. Pardon I human is…

Sarah Baartman

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Wednesday, 26 July 2017 06:00

More than ‘Rise like lions’: Shelley beyond The Mask of Anarchy

in Poetry

Written by Mike Sanders

Mike Sanders writes about Shelley 'the Chartist poet' as a catalyst for working class creativity, how he envisioned a communist society, and how the privileged classes refused to hear the revolutionary meanings of his poems. One of the unexpected features of the recent General Election campaign was the ‘co-opting’ of…

shelley jeremy corbyn Peterloo

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Saturday, 22 July 2017 06:00

Justice 4 Grenfell

in Poetry

Written by Zita Holbourne

Justice 4 Grenfell by Zita Holbourne So many lives that never needed to end Trapped in a fire box, no way to defend From the fury of flames spreading rapidlyImagine how frightening this must be They built ghettos in the sky to hide us away Boxed in on top of…

Grenfell Tower Justice4Grenfell

Friday, 21 July 2017 18:01

Aftersong

Written by Robert Farrell

in Poetry

After-Song by Robert Farrell One hears and moves toward it. One moves, but is Not in it, what does not Keep but flowers forth. We aren’t it. It is What lets the sky appear, The sunrise rise to site a circle in Hills whose rocks refuse toRecognize themselves in us.…

Thursday, 20 July 2017 21:34

one block of council flats left

Written by Martin Hayes

in Poetry

one block of council flats left by Martin Hayes just one block of council flats remains in this area where we work our magic in allocating out jobs to couriersso that multinationals and £500-an-hour law firms and hedge-fund managers who look after billions of pounds can remain healthy and strong…

Sunday, 09 July 2017 14:42

The Miner

Written by Glenn Bradford

in Poetry

The Miner by Glenn Bradford Still dreams of the pit, does old Derek.Gripping the duvet in great calloused handsas if ready to swing at the coalface of the night. Stripped to the waist. A vivid reprise.Terry, Taylor and The Bull, headlamps in hand,anticipating the familiar clatter of a closing cage…

Durham Miners' Gala

Sunday, 09 July 2017 06:00

Seeing Red

Written by Jon Tait

in Poetry

Seeing Red by Jon Tait If it wasn’t hung from the ceiling in a museum,we’d paint Jeremy Corbyn’s faceon the red Lodge banneralongside Keir Hardie and Nye Bevan. We’re still going Forward with Socialismand the colours never fade;still red as the Manchester United shirtthat Bobby Charlton wore, red as the…

Durham Miners' Gala jeremy corbyn