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

Saturday, 29 September 2018 18:20

The Song of the Low: The Chartist Ernest Jones advises the Labour Party

Written by Mike Sanders

in Poetry

Mike Sanders explains how Ernest Jones's poem expresses the kind of radical social transformation that the Labour Party is now offering. Addressing the Labour Party conference on September 26th 2018, Jeremy Corbyn quoted the following lines from Ernest Jones, the Chartist leader and poet: And what we get - and…

Saturday, 22 September 2018 17:05

Poetry on the Picket Line

Written by Phill Jupitus

in Poetry

Phill Jupitus wrote the Foreword for this new anthology, which is available here. All proceeds of sale will go towards strike funds. I have always thought there’s an unrecognised grace and beauty in a picket line. Also, they are a huge embarrassment to the organisations being picketed. The fact that,…

Friday, 14 September 2018 16:11

Thursday

Written by Peter Knaggs

in Poetry

Thursday by Peter Knaggs The racks of bikinis and sunglasses and slippersand dressing gowns, the shelves of water jugs and balti dishes have gone and so have the people who sold them. A man called Lionbar has jemmied the firedoor.He’s making himself comfortable in menswear,abandoned of everything men wear. He…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Friday, 14 September 2018 16:03

Things that can fly

in Poetry

Written by Elizabeth Gibson

Things that can fly by Elizabeth Gibson You tell me, excitedly, how there is a hill in Azerbaijanthat is so full of natural gas it is always on fire. I agreethat is interesting, and maybe we can go there, but wishyour generation realised that right here we walk on coal.A…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Monday, 10 September 2018 08:18

Kipling Buildings

in Poetry

Written by Alan Morrison

Kipling Buildings With some debt to Rudyard Kipling's 'If' by Alan Morrison If you can keep your head when all about youAre spy cameras, a deliberate delayOf the appointment time in an attemptTo break your spirit, a protracted waitIn a claustrophobic, clinical-looking room,A neutrally decorated purgatorySilent except for the rumbling…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Monday, 03 September 2018 22:19

lucky charms

in Poetry

Written by Martin Hayes

lucky charms by Martin Hayes some of the people I work with have made these spaces where they spend 11 hours a day protected areasthey have developed elaborate internal defences that have convinced them that these spots they sit inare almost sacredthey use plastic figurines, pictures, stones and cactus plants…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Sunday, 19 August 2018 20:20

Measure Twice, Cut Once

in Poetry

Written by Jon Tait

Measure Twice, Cut Once by Jon Tait When I was 17, the builder’s leader Albert Williams told me to get off site and go and get a degree, swap the sawdust and hard hat for books and a mortar board, and I should have said then that the only mortar…

Wednesday, 08 August 2018 10:23

It Suits a Narrative

Written by Rita Ann Higgins

in Poetry

It Suits a Narrative by Rita Ann Higgins It suits a narrative of the 'big, bad stateand the 'big bad religious congregations',- Mary Higgins, CEO of Caranua The Irish Times, March 20th 2017. Some applicants will never be happyand grievances suit a narrative,of the big bad churchand the big bad…

Caranua

Wednesday, 08 August 2018 10:00

Two poems by Andy Croft

Written by Andy Croft

in Poetry

archy says hooray by Andy Croft boss i have heardsome human beans thinkhungry and homeless peopleare like cockroaches iam flattered at last some humans beans feelsorry for us poor insectshooray there is hope for some human beans after all either that or thehuman beans who think hungry and homeless people…

Wednesday, 08 August 2018 08:49

Cometh the hour, cometh the Dame

Written by Kevin Higgins

in Poetry

Cometh the hour, cometh the Dameafter John Cooper Clarke by Kevin Higgins the fucking dame is fucking furious and not fucking having itfucking up is fucking downfucking in is fucking outfucking master is fucking slavefucking Palestine is fucking neverfucking Goliath is fucking Davidfucking catapult is fucking atom bombthe fucking wall…

Friday, 03 August 2018 18:47

The Things Our Hands Once Stood For: Introduction and Review

Written by Alan Dent

in Poetry

Alan Dent introduces and reviews the recent collection of poems about work by Martin Hayes. From Chaucer to the present day, hardly any poetry in English is about work. Most of it has been written by men from the higher reaches of society. Chaucer’s father married Agnes Copton who inherited…