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

Tuesday, 12 May 2020 13:01

Pandemic

Written by Dave Lewis

in Poetry

Pandemic by Dave Lewis I was thinking about the last pandemic,when fifty million war-ravaged soulscoughed up their bloody guts and died.Merely a small gesture on my part,after the royalists’ pointless war.To be honest, after you did it again,I couldn’t be arsed to punish you.Thought a big bomb or twowas enough…

Monday, 11 May 2020 08:08

The Unopened University: Stay Alert, Boris!

Written by David Erdos

in Poetry

Overacting, or The Unopened University by David Erdos And so the Unopen University fails as its peri-patheticLecturer garbles. Transmitting graphs and equationsThat would set the mathematically untrigged into spin; A series of mixed ratios equal R over the rate of dissentSubdivided, before what is in blue times the yellow,Can, to…

Covid19 Boris Johnson Clear as mud

Saturday, 09 May 2020 12:28

Almarks: Radical Poetry from Shetland

Written by Jim Mainland

in Poetry

Jim Mainland introduces a new anthology of radical poetry from Culture Matters What is radical poetry? And can it change anything? The poems in ‘Almarks’ are radical in different ways. Some are explicitly political in content, while others are more indirectly observational and personal. Some are radical in style and…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Thursday, 07 May 2020 12:43

VE Day: Why they give you medals

in Poetry

Written by Fran Lock

Why they give you medals For B.L., who sent his back to the palace, stating 'I didn't fight for you'. by Fran Lock, with Unlovable Labour image above by Steev Burgess So they can keep the bloody colonies.So they can dress the slums in bunting.So they can rewrite you, as…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Thursday, 07 May 2020 11:24

VE Day

in Poetry

Written by Paul Francis

VE Day by Paul Francis, with image by Laura Moore After it’s over, time to pause for breath.It takes some working out, the “what comes next?”The grim familiarity with deathcan not be cancelled with some pious textand we don’t want to end up like before. Yes, it was give and…

Covid19

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Wednesday, 06 May 2020 22:08

Graces

in Poetry

Written by P. W. Bridgman

Graces by P. W. Bridgman In the dying light, as the moon drifts fully behind the casement’s edge, Ted and Grace’s little one drifts too: from a fitful wakefulness,at last and finally to a placid sleep. Somnolence settles upon him like a blessing, like a light snowfall, like the blanket’s…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Wednesday, 06 May 2020 08:39

Numbers

in Poetry

Written by Steve Pottinger

numbers by Steve Pottinger this morning(one dressing-gown, two pockets, missing belt) standing on the back doorstep(cuppa, four sugars, first fag of the day) she’s thinking about numbers(two blackbirds, three wood pigeon, one wren) dry mouth, heart pitter-pattering (nineteen to the dozen) the small ones she can handle,(five fence panels, twelve…

Friday, 01 May 2020 09:10

Beak Doctors

Written by Alan Morrison

in Poetry

Beak Doctors by Alan Morrison We're wandering about by dayKeeping each other at baySome of us wearing face masksCarrying out our daily tasksOf getting some shopping inWithout touching anything -Wiping down the supermarket basketsWith disinfectantLike over-scrupulous neuroticsOr priests polishing communion cups (One wonders if those orange topsWill ever be back…

Covid19

Thursday, 30 April 2020 08:03

May Day Greetings from a London garden

Written by David Erdos

in Poetry

My May Day Call By David Erdos Act One: As We End? SCENE: April 2020, with the day itself as a stage, the writer sits in his garden. He types on an old child-size laptop what he wishes his fellow comrades to hear. He is resolute but concerned and keen…

Tuesday, 28 April 2020 09:33

'The life I lived was a woman's life': Eavan Boland, one of Ireland's finest poets

Written by Jenny Farrell

in Poetry

Jenny Farrell remembers the life and work of the late Eavan Boland Eavan Boland died on 27 April 2020. She ranks among Ireland’s finest poets, and was one of the foremost female voices in Irish poetry. She was born in Dublin in 1944, her father a diplomat and her mother…

Friday, 17 April 2020 15:48

Tribute Acts

Written by Kevin Higgins

in Poetry

Tribute Acts by Kevin Higgins Each witch hunt is a tribute act to the last. There is always a committee of three.The gravity in the room is such they struggle to manoeuvre the enormity of their serious faces in the door. Except in the TV version, there is hardly ever…

labour party