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, 28 March 2018 11:14

Hoodied Bridget

Written by Kevin Higgins

in Poetry

Hoodied Bridget after Bertolt Brecht & Kurt Weill by Kevin Higgins A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of communism. - Karl Marx You’ve seen me doing my hours emptying the ashtrays of third hand taxis cabsand scrubbing hard with bleach their tainted back seats before they’re offered up again…

Tuesday, 27 March 2018 10:42

Those Hands

Written by Mike Jenkins

in Poetry

Mike Jenkins offers a prose-poem inspired by Martin Hayes’ book of poetry ‘The things our hands once stood for’ Those Hands for Martin Hayes I’ll never forget those hands resting on his…

Monday, 19 March 2018 17:53

Bread and Roses Poetry Award 2018

Written by Mike Quille

in Poetry

Culture Matters is pleased to announce that the second Bread and Roses Poetry Award, sponsored by Unite, is now open for entries. It is part of our mission to promote a socialist approach to culture. The purpose of the Award is to create new opportunities for working class people to write…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Sunday, 11 March 2018 16:43

our mother's day will come

in Poetry

Written by Fran Lock

our mother’s day will come by Fran Lock my mother’s face exists in the space between kaijū and sphinx. she’s wearing clothes that holdher body in contempt. her breath, imperfect peppermint. she has to go to work. her earringsare obols, shorn of their funerary usage. palestflirtation of dubious gold. unclaimed…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Wednesday, 07 March 2018 12:07

Creativity unites us: poetry for International Women's Day, 2018

in Poetry

Written by Fran Lock

Fran Lock has curated this year’s compilation of poetry for Culture Matters, to mark International Women’s Day. There are poems by Jane Burn, Sogol Sur, Joanne Key, Julia Bell, Anne Pelleschi, Beri Allen-Miller, and Fran herself, ending with a prose piece, On Fighting the Disconnect. Introduction When you put out…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Wednesday, 07 March 2018 11:21

Gibraltar, March 1988

in Poetry

Written by Jenny Farrell

30 years ago at approx 3.30pm Mairéad Farrell was murdered by the British state on Gibraltar. Standing by her side, also with his hands in the air, was Dan McCann who was also shot dead. A few hundred metres away Sean Savage was to have a similar fate. At the…

IWD IRA

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Tuesday, 06 March 2018 22:45

We'll show you you're a woman

in Poetry

Written by Sheree Mack

To mark IWD, we're publishing this poem from a new collection by Sheree Mack called skinshame, to be published shortly by Culture Matters.‘We’ll show you you’re a woman’ was the title of a report compiled by Human Rights Watch into the violence and discrimination experienced by black lesbians and transgender…

Tuesday, 06 March 2018 22:03

An Unfortunate Case

Written by Chris Norris

in Poetry

An Unfortunate Case by Chris Norris Portugal’s president has described the circumstances in which a homeless Portuguese man died near the UK parliament as ‘inhumane’. Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa paid tribute to the unnamed man found dead in an underpass near Westminster tube station, a stone’s throw from an entrance to…

Monday, 05 March 2018 22:36

A witness to ruthless oppression: Maxim Gorky

Written by Jenny Farrell

in Poetry

Jenny Farrell introduces the life and poetry of Maxim Gorky, who was born 150 years ago, and presents his poem Storm Petrel, prophesying revolution. Alexei Maximovich Peshkov, or Maxim Gorky, was born 28 March 1868 in Nizhny Novgorod (named Gorky,1932-1990), and died 14 June 1936. He was a Russian and…

Friday, 02 March 2018 14:07

the employed poor

Written by Martin Hayes

in Poetry

the employed poor by Martin Hayes they have a car a job with no contract they work for a company that hasa zero-tolerance policy on sick days and non-attendance they have aflat with heating and food they have a bottle of wine of a night they cook a pasta dinner…

precariat poverty working poor immiseration

Saturday, 24 February 2018 18:28

What Did The Politician Get His Wife?

Written by Kevin Higgins

in Poetry

What Did The Politician Get His Wife?after Bertolt Brecht by Kevin Higgins And what did she get, the girlfriend,from the student union meetingat which he rose to his feetand realised he could speak? From that meeting she gotthe Snickers bar he forgot to eatso busy was he watching them listen;and…