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, 06 August 2022 17:37

Lock Me Up!

Written by Mike Jenkins

in Poetry

Lock Me Up by Mike Jenkins Lock me up , Rishi Sunak!I have committed a thought -crime,I am a modern Winston Smith,I call myself Mihangel Morgannwg. Rip me up, Sunak!For I am an extremistWanting out of your beloved UnionWhere we are an afterthought. Report me to Prevent, Sunak!I need to…

Sunday, 31 July 2022 10:06

Love and Politics: a tanka

Written by Chris Norris

in Poetry

Love and Politics: a tanka (Japanese extended haiku-like verse-form: 31 syllables in all; lines of 5, 7, 5, 7, 7 syllables, rhyming ababb) 1 (Love-Poet) Love is life sublime!So say we lovers, crooners,We who’d spend our timeBanging dustbin-lids soon asStrike up with you harsh tuners! Give us the sweet stuff,Love-songs,…

Saturday, 30 July 2022 07:37

Jean Valjean stole that loaf of bread for all of us

Written by Fred Voss

in Poetry

Jean Valjean stole that loaf of bread for all of us by Fred Voss These machinists or welders or overhead crane operatorswho voted for Trumpand wave huge red white and blue flags from the back of their pickup truckswork under the same tin roofas mea socialist poet who keeps his…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Thursday, 21 July 2022 11:38

Please Be Advised

in Poetry

Written by Helen Bovaird Ryan

Please Be Advised by Helen Bovaird Ryan I’d just like to start this morning by welcoming you one and allTo this wonderful institution Our government, many thanks for making the callto join our brigade of stalwarts, you’ve now boarded the Boris-Rishi-Liz Bus,you’ve made the grade, you’re vetted, you’re now officially…

Tory leadership Liz Truss Rishi Sunak Boris Bullshit

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Saturday, 16 July 2022 18:44

Seeds from a Sycamore: Tolpuddle Martyrs' Festival 2022:

in Poetry

Written by Owen Gallagher

Seeds from a Sycamore(The Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Tree) by Owen Gallagher We can’t let that Socialist plant herself outside our factory gate. She is taking root. Each day her ideas tunnel into our footings. Whatever the weather she is out therebrandishing her newspaper. Workers are mouthing about a trade union.Cracks are…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Thursday, 07 July 2022 14:37

Burning Boris

in Poetry

Written by David Erdos

Burning Boris by David Erdos Burn, then, as we have burned under you!Spurn yourself! End your era! And let defamation Trump your own infamy. For just as Kenneth WilliamsCried in the film Carry On Cleo, we all have it in for you, Bore-is, or as was. Be not free To…

Narcissist Psychopath Boor Misogynist Bum on fire Run out of space again

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Thursday, 07 July 2022 14:21

Farewell to a Bullish Boris

in Poetry

Written by Gabriel Rosenstock

Farewell to a Bullish Boris a bilingual limerick by Limerick bilingualist Gabriel Rosenstock We've had more than enough of your bullNow we're all in need of a lull So look for fresh pastures Enough with disastersYou're full of it Johnson! Ff- full! Níl ionatsa, Boris, ach tarbhMagarlán mioscaiseach garbh Mo…

Boris Johnson Liar Cheat Incompetent Entitled Clownish Run out of space

Thursday, 07 July 2022 07:40

Summer Poetry Round-Up

Written by Fran Lock

in Poetry

Queering the Green: Post-2000 Queer Irish Poetry, ed. Paul Maddern (The Lifeboat Press, 2022) It’s about time somebody undertook the difficult, necessary work of editing a collection of contemporary queer Irish poetry, and I am so glad that The Lifeboat Press accepted this challenge. Queering the Green is a thoughtful…

Thursday, 07 July 2022 07:23

Do Geezers Go To Heaven: Review of 'Breeze Block' by Jake Hawkey

Written by Fran Lock

in Poetry

Breeze Block, the debut collection by Jake Hawkey, confirms Lumpen Press as a serious and exciting poetry publisher. Hawkey's haunting collection is the second in Lumpen's chapbook series, following on from Dorothy Spencer's accomplished and engaging See What Life is Like. Hawkey shares with Spencer a commitment to foregrounding working-class…

Monday, 04 July 2022 11:25

Crossing Troubled Waters: A review of Jim Aitken’s 'Declarations of Love'

Written by David Betteridge

in Poetry

What I like about Jim Aitken’s poems is the way they can surprise us by travelling at speed from A to B, and sometimes a lot further. The starting point may be a person, a place, an image, an event, or an idea, typically taken from a real-life here-and-now, while…

Sunday, 03 July 2022 16:04

The Clowns, The Crooks, The Cranks, The Chancers, The Careerists, The Charlatans and the Refugee

Written by Martin Rowson

in Poetry

The Clowns, The Crooks, The Cranks, The Chancers, The Careerists, The Charlatans and the Refugee by Martin Rowson (who also drew the image above) Once the clowns, the class clowns all the other kids now shrank back from in Earth-swallowing embarrassment, playpenned my country and trashed it for a laugh…