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

Wednesday, 05 October 2016 14:35

Long live those who died like dogs

Written by Andy Croft

in Poetry

Andy Croft reminds us of the radicalism of the early Dadaist movement. A hundred years after the Cabaret Voltaire first opened its doors in Zurich, it is hard to remember just how shocking, how provocative and how radical the early Dadaist movement once was. Their extraordinary innovations in performance and…

Saturday, 17 September 2016 14:13

Poetry belongs to everyone

Written by Andy Croft

in Poetry

Andy Croft wrote The Privatisation of Poetry for Culture Matters a few months ago, and it has been amongst the most popular and influential articles on the site. He has attracted a good deal of criticism for his application of communist philosophy to poetry. Here, in an article republished from…

Saturday, 17 September 2016 14:12

The War Abroad

Written by Alan Dunnett

in Poetry

The War Abroad by Alan Dunnett I have heard that in warpeople often don't knowwhat's going on. I meanordinary people caught in the middlealthough others too get confused. I have heard that beforeit can end, you must go throughtrauma. To some, that will seemnormal but, if you're caught in the…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Saturday, 17 September 2016 14:05

When the well runs dry

in Poetry

Written by Alan Dunnett

When The Well Runs Dry by Alan Dunnett I got to the piss-edge last nightsharp and painful like an infectionwith you below looking upfrom a hole in hell. I thought, this must be a jokeafter all the admonitionsbut then there's no telling what peoplemay do and be done by in…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Thursday, 01 September 2016 11:30

Titanic

in Poetry

Written by Salena Godden

Titanic by Salena Godden I used to love the film TitanicThe last 45 minutes or soAfter the sex scene in the carWhen the sea water starts to flow The sinking ship All slopping and swayingThe band how they Bravely keep on playing A man dressing up As a girly waifTo…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Wednesday, 31 August 2016 14:55

'Late leaves mean zero hours contracts': a review of Jim Aitken's 'Flutterings'

in Poetry

Written by David Betteridge

David Betteridge reviews Jim Aitken's latest collection. In the three dozen poems that make up Jim Aitken’s latest collection, Flutterings, we sense a mind fully engaged in the world. The poet’s senses, feelings and intelligence are all equally involved; and it is a large world that he inhabits, ranging from…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Wednesday, 31 August 2016 10:36

'A poem of objects that live by magic': the poetry of Anna Mendelssohn

in Poetry

Written by Vicky Sparrow

Vicky Sparrow introduces the poetry of Anna Mendelssohn, imprisoned for her association with the Angry Brigade, and discusses how its 'attentive concern' rescues objects and people from the processes of capitalist commodification and impoverishment of meaning that are typical of capitalist culture. The poetry of Anna Mendelssohn (1948-2009) is both…

Wednesday, 10 August 2016 18:20

On The New Parliamentary Rump In The Absence of Mandatory Reselection

Written by Kevin Higgins

in Poetry

On The New Parliamentary RumpIn The Absence of Mandatory Reselectionafter John Milton by Kevin Higgins Because you have shrugged off all sentiment,like a convention of businessmen, each in turn,successfully losing his boxer shortsat an after party that will, in due course,be put in the accounts under ‘miscellaneous’;he who is of…

parliamentary labour party

Sunday, 31 July 2016 19:56

Hands Off Rosa Luxemburg

Written by Peter Raynard

in Poetry

Hands Off Rosa Luxemburg by Peter Raynard Red Rosa was carved from timberin a Poland that was not her own.She was not ‘mistaken, mistaken, mistaken’,dear Lenin. Your eagle of the working classeshawked a different path never landingon another’s arm. She was Spartacus,who kept moving to hear her chains,advancement through struggle,…

Wednesday, 20 July 2016 09:56

After the Big Vote

Written by Kevin Higgins

in Poetry

After The Big VoteIntellectual Begins To Decompose by Kevin Higgins You sit minding that cupas if it contained, post-Brexit,the last frothy coffee in all of Brighton.You’ve the look ofa pretend Elvis Costello,or the rejected fourth memberof Bananarama. Your claim to notorietythat one of the Sex Pistolsonce failed to cross the…

Brexit

The White Queen claimed to belive six impossible things before breakfast

Friday, 08 July 2016 20:23

Stabberjocky

Written by Steve Pottinger

in Poetry

Stabberjocky by Steve Pottinger(with apologies to Lewis Carroll) ‘Twas Brexit, and the slithy Govedid frottercrutch in dwarfish glee;he snicker-snacked the Camerove,Machiavelliadastardly. Beware the stabberjock, my son!The empty eyes, the robo-glint!who fellobrates the Murdocronethe Ruperturtle übergimp! He pallerised the BoJo cloonthey chummed upon their sunderbusemblazoned it with fibberoonsand bambulluntruthoozled us. The…

Brexit Lewis Carroll