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

Sunday, 17 September 2023 17:34

(Russell) Branded

Written by David Erdos

in Poetry

(Russell) Branded Dispatches, Channel 4, 16/9/23; commons image above by Brian Solis It always happens, it seems; fame’s warped privilege Breeds perversion, as years on, Russell Brand’s womenWith the much-used stamp of abuse; as sex replaced heroin, Said to flow as it does or did through his system, Each compulsion…

Saturday, 16 September 2023 14:57

Academia

Written by Jenny Mitchell

in Poetry

Academia by Jenny Mitchell, with above image by Chad McCail This is not a campus for the poor. The posh,in drab designer clothes, labels on the outside – wealth flapping in the sun. A coddled generation, prepared to have it all, held up as leaders of the world, when I…

Thursday, 14 September 2023 17:42

Igniting the Fire: Poetry and Keeping Hope Alive

Written by Fran Lock

in Poetry

I began writing this quarterly column looking for reasons to stay ‘hopeful’, whatever that means. I used to know. Or else, I thought I did: something like Gramsci's riff on Romain Rolland: ‘pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.’ Which is not merely a clear-eyed understanding of how bad…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Thursday, 14 September 2023 12:40

Class, history, and boxing: review of 'Crisis Actor' by Declan Ryan

in Poetry

Written by Nick Moss

In his 2010 review of Robert Hass’s The Apple Trees at Olema: New and Selected Poems, the US poet Michael Robbins attacked Hass’s “dewy piety” which he identified as a complacent trait in much American poetry. “Like Mary Oliver, Billy Collins and Sharon Olds - in their different ways -…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Wednesday, 13 September 2023 09:58

Stone Age Jimi Hendrix

in Poetry

Written by Fred Voss

A message from Fred: Here is my latest poem, I'm reading it this Saturday 16th September at Page Against the Machine, a democratic socialist left-wing bookstore on 4th St. in Long Beach, California. It's a post-Labor Day reading - unions are on the upswing here right now after all these…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Friday, 11 August 2023 09:57

Daffodils

in Poetry

Written by Fran Lock

Daffodils by Fran Lock and what of them? hardy stragglersbetween wastelands, waste laneswith the weather wetly trepanning the factories. by junctions of squathope, the stooping of resolute chimneys, i saw them: thin enoughto pass through the slit in a cat's eye yellowly. a salute, an assault,the meadow's broken heil! hownature…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Thursday, 10 August 2023 08:40

Respite

in Poetry

Written by Wayne Dean-Richards

Respite by Wayne Dean-Richards I watch an episode of the original Star Trek TV series, followed immediately by an episode ofWhatever Happened to the Likely Lads? followed immediately by an episode ofThe Champions – one after the other, boom, boom, boom, just like that. the newest of these shows is…

Wednesday, 09 August 2023 09:07

Sinéad Means ‘God is Gracious’

Written by Michelle Diaz

in Poetry

Sinéad Means ‘God is Gracious’ by Michelle Diaz She walked this earthwith a tempest in her chest. Her scars threw shadows across the mornings.Her days were indigo nights. Now, she’s riding the high tides.Scaling the tunnel of light.Poised at the mouth of rebirth – I feel her rising. Hand in…

Wednesday, 09 August 2023 08:44

Stop the Boats!

Written by Laura Taylor

in Poetry

Stop The Boats! ....the message sends to your Facebook friends.Stop the millions spent on hotels!Stop the life of luxury while we are stuck in poverty.Stop the boats!Send them back to hell. Stop the boats, the small boats, little dinghies of despair.Stop the race away from war, stop the people seeking…

refugees Asylum seekers

Monday, 07 August 2023 12:29

With Apologies

Written by Steven Taylor

in Poetry

This poem was inspired by a poem by a British/Syrian of Kurdish origin called Amir Darwish who came to Britain as a refugee in 2003. His poetry is direct, engaged and accessible, often propelled by his life and experience as an internationalist and (I think) outsider. I adopted his approach…