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, 08 November 2020 10:20

Little Boy

Written by Gerda Stevenson

in Poetry

Little Boy by Gerda Stevenson Little Boy is on his way, snugin the metal womb of Enola Gay,all of his components prepped, but not quite ready yet – his system fine-tuned only after take-off –safety first for his birthing crew.The pilot gives full throttle: Do it for me, Momma! Overloaded,…

Remembrance Sunday Hiroshima 75th anniversary

Friday, 06 November 2020 12:58

It was 1915 (Grandad began)

Written by Kevin McCann

in Poetry

It was 1915 (Grandad began) by Kevin McCann The French bring these new ladsUp the line: Moroccans was what I heard, only they’re issued Tropical Kit, It’s November, cold as Hell, So come morning they’ve all frozenSolid, row after row of dark grey Corpses and every one of them grinning…

Monday, 02 November 2020 10:43

Coal Monologues

Written by William Hershaw

in Poetry

Coal Monologues by Willie Hershaw 1) Brother James I received the Abbot’s ordersinby the big pink house:“Yoke Joseph and Mary, to an oxen cart - take shovels, creels.Wrap up - it’s wet and marshy with few paths.Go roughly east for around six miles,keep to the right of the hills.You’ll see…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Saturday, 31 October 2020 12:04

O Jeremy Corbyn

in Poetry

Written by alistair findlay

O Jeremy Corbyn by Alistair Findlay They’re hanging out old Jeremyfor still wearing the gabardinehe wore cleaning up the stablesof the old regime, the flecks of Blairand Browns’ oxen and Campbelland Mandelson still stickingvirulently to its theme, the same shitreeking of malice and the self-servinghypocrisy that so eluded him. See…

Injustice

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Friday, 30 October 2020 11:57

The New Jerusalem

in Poetry

Written by Martin Rowson

The New Jerusalem by Martin Rowson The tattered flag snaps in the gale.The old man pouts; looks out to seaTo where, without the Tide's betrayal,The New Jerusalem should be.

jeremy corbyn Keir Starmer

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Thursday, 29 October 2020 10:16

The Migrants

in Poetry

Written by Martin Rowson

The Migrants by Martin Rowson In the hot stifling tiny roomThe cold dead eyes blanked Even an iotaOf their torment or their tearsOr their mourning as the dead voice Catechized on quotas,Spoke flatly of the processes,Rules, restrictions, retributions, The penalties compounded by each error,The limits on their movements,The denial of…

Deaths in English Channel refugees Priti Patel

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Tuesday, 27 October 2020 08:54

Bread and Roses Poetry Award Anthology 2020

in Poetry

Written by Mike Quille

Handbook for 2021 is the judges' selection of 40 entries to the Bread and Roses Poetry Award 2020, including the seven winners. Image above: Martin Rowson. The coronavirus pandemic this year has had a devastating human cost, with over 60,000 lives lost to date. The health crisis has also exposed…

Tuesday, 27 October 2020 08:32

Let's pretend it's butter

Written by Sally Flint

in Poetry

Let's pretend it's butter by Sally Flint 'It all starts with stability around access to food.' - Marcus Rashford After the adrenaline rush of not knowing if her card might be declined, a test for economy beans on a week of no 'free school meals'. In her career as a…

Holiday hunger

Tuesday, 27 October 2020 08:15

Cultural Marxism

Written by Martin Rowson

in Poetry

Cultural Marxism by Martin Rowson I met a Cultural MarxistWho took me to Swan Lake"Those swans denote the Class War!"Quoth he. I found his takeCompelling if naive, but nowI'm told it's a disgraceBy a Cultural FascistWho then shot me in the face.

Saturday, 24 October 2020 13:30

Class Register

Written by Alan Sleater

in Poetry

Class Register by Alan Sleater The first register I called at Selkirk HighWas, to my incomer’s eyes, a roll callOf the Borders clans, and three hundred years of peace;Armstrong, Douglas, Elliot, Scott,A second-year class, sitting in ordered rows,Like the shields in the entrance hall at Abbotsford. My mother was a…

Saturday, 24 October 2020 13:23

A Resistance Writer Reflects On His Life: Variations of poems by Bertolt Brecht

Written by Ciaran O Rourke

in Poetry

Author's note: Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) was one of the most influential playwrights of the twentieth century, blending an aspirational communism with anti-fascist politics, while developing a satirical, "epic style" of drama that broke new theatrical ground. Famously, in The Threepenny Opera (1928), Brecht posed the question: "Who is the bigger…