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

Friday, 17 November 2017 09:45

To the Wife of an All-Too-Interventionist Foreign Secretary

Written by Chris Norris

in Poetry

To the Wife of an All-Too-Interventionist Foreign Secretary by Chris Norris Note: This piece is an updated reprise of Edgell Rickword’s mid-1930s poem ‘To the Wife of Any Non-Interventionist Statesman’. Rickword was addressing those mainly Conservative politicians who opposed sending military aid to the Republican Government in Spain on grounds…

Yemen Saudi Arabia Foreign Secretary

Monday, 27 November 2017 13:33

Flight and Fall

Written by David Betteridge

in Poetry

David Betteridge has written a commemorative work of prose and poetry especially for this Russian Revolution section of Culture Matters. An extract from the poetry is given in ebook format here, along with some illustrations by Bob Starrett. Flight and Fall looks back at the events of 1917 from the standpoint of Glasgow in 2017.

Saturday, 28 October 2017 17:06

Valhalla on my round

Written by Jon Tait

in Poetry

Valhalla on my Round by Jon Tait I’ve seen themstruggling to get a round up in the fitting,the old boys with white hair,odd bits of uniform; a blue wool V-neckissued in the 90s,a tie, worn and threadbare as their dreams,as they sink under trays of mail,shrinking as another grey bag…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Wednesday, 11 October 2017 15:27

Muses and Bruises

in Poetry

Written by Fran Lock

Culture Matters has published a brilliant new collection of poetry called Muses and Bruises by Fran Lock, an activist, writer and illustrator, and one of the finest political poets writing in Britain today. Her feminist and socialist poetry weaves psychological insight and social awareness into themes of poverty, mental health…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Tuesday, 03 October 2017 20:14

Letter to W. H. Auden

in Poetry

Written by Chris Norris

by Christopher Norris Note This verse-letter is written in Rhyme Royal, the seven-line stanza-form (rhyming ababbcc) that goes back to some of the earliest English poetry and was taken up by W.H. Auden in his ‘Letter to Lord Byron’. The piece first appeared in Letters from Iceland (1937), a jointly-authored…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Wednesday, 27 September 2017 20:25

National Poetry Day: Vignettes of Working Class Exhaustion

in Poetry

Written by Fran Lock

Vignettes of Working Class Exhaustion by Fran Lock Malkin Sacred, not wise, the black cat's acidcasualty stare, traversing a crumblingcul-de-sac, under a starlessly inkjet sky.We cross each other's path, and sheleans into my unluck, a clot of deeperdark, unstuck from the rest of the night.Then she is gone, the quick…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Wednesday, 27 September 2017 13:31

National Poetry Day: Pretend

in Poetry

Written by Anon

Pretend by a postal worker pretend that the scars on your knuckles come from boxing, not letterboxesmake out that the pains in your neck are just age, the snaps in your knees,the feet worn rough by work shoes slanted at heels, soles like a burst couch,front up that you’ll not…

Wednesday, 27 September 2017 09:05

National Poetry Day: as the poets write about the smell of their dead fathers' tweed jackets

Written by Martin Hayes

in Poetry

as the poets write about the smell of their dead fathers' tweed jackets by Martin Hayes a crust of dry bread has become the dream of millionsrunning water and one bar of electric heatamenities out of reach for a quarter of the globeas CEOs stand in their kitchenswarming their feet…

Wednesday, 27 September 2017 08:49

National Poetry Day: Ciúnas/Quiet

Written by Kevin Higgins

in Poetry

Ciúnas/Quiet after Camillo Sbarbero by Kevin Higgins Ciúnas, sad person, these are the greatdays when one must speak without whining.The children of the long political sleep forced awake. Like a vine heavy with grapes in peak season,laughing at its own potential riches,I don’t think I shall die againand now know…

Wednesday, 27 September 2017 08:28

National Poetry Day: None of us are really machines

Written by Fred Voss

in Poetry

None of us are really machines by Fred Voss Every once in a while a manfalls apart next to a machine with perfect thousandth-of-an-inch calibration marksall over its dialstrains roll on timetime clocks never miss a tickJupiter never stops revolving or orbiting the sunbut a manwho has come through a…

Tuesday, 26 September 2017 15:38

National Poetry Day: Justice and Peace

Written by Alan Dunnett

in Poetry

Justice and Peace by Alan Dunnett Then I killed him. It was appropriate.Then his sister hired some men who shot my brother when they could not find me. Chestdown, he was paralysed. Following that, my sister-in-law spoke to her brothersand they took revenge but two of them died. Then it…