On Such A Day (for Holly and Jessica and their families)
it was one summer’s day when the news it came by
you could search high and low and not find a dry eye
and it wasn’t the news that you prayed it would be
but the same awful moment for you and for me –
while away in the distance they were playing some game
the start of a season but something had changed
and all of those fixtures seemed suddenly bland
from Rushden to Arsenal and way ‘cross the land
and what can you utter to lessen the blow
who can you turn to and where can you go
when everything else it just whithers and pales
and all of your strength it just stutters and fails –
for these were the words that we hoped to avoid
and these are the pictures where dreams are destroyed
these are the children that could have been ours
plucked from their lives that were open like flowers
but they sat at Old Trafford and at grounds ‘cross the land
and try as they might they could not understand
and sometimes you wonder what more can you do
while the tears fall together from me and from you –
and how can we ever help loved-ones recover
what can we say to a father or mother
what can we offer and where can we start
to help them pull though this and make a new start?
and why it all happens we never will know
but this is the minute when all that we know
is questioned and challenged like floods in a town
or wild winds and snow when there’s storm all around –
but now when the dark nights will follow blue skies
now when we gather with tears in our eyes
now when the anger it wells up inside
we reach out for someone or somewhere to hide –
for this is the one thing we always have known
we’re always together but always alone
alone but together and joined by it all
together in silence together appalled –
but we will give comfort wherever we can
we will remember and we will all stand –
together together alone in this world
alone with the sorrow the weeks have unfurled
for there was a time when we once were a child
those innocent years that we played in a while
when all that we knew were the things we were told
and how we’d be young til the day we grew old –
and there was an advert i think of it still
two children walking up over a hill
a long twisty pathway that bent to and fro
and it said .. little feet they have so far to go –
and all of those warnings all of those dangers
like crossing the road or talking to strangers
all of those moments you pray will not come
all of those nightmares just rolled into one –
but when the news takes you you numb like the snow
it freezes your thinking it pulls at your soul
and there in the darkness we never outgrow
there in the sadness wherever we go
but this is the time when you share in the grief
whatever you’ve always or never believed
to question where all of this darkness began
and man’s disrespect for his own fellow man
and it isn’t the media it’s closer to home
it’s everyone’s children from ours to your own
and you look for a reason and send out your love
you look for some guidance within or above
while everything else become meaningless void
such innocent life and such futures destoyed –
but away in the village and over the fields
they stand there in silence so deep and so real
and you swear though this mountain sweeps up like a fire
that you will keep trying and we will rise higher
and maybe the odds they will loom like a tower
and maybe this feels like the darkest of hours
but we will not cease from the dream we all share
for a world that is safe that is loving and fair –
for they were the moment and children of now
but it hit such a chord when the news broke somehow
and on one summer day when the news it came by
you could search high and low and not find a dry eye
——————————————————————————–
© crispin 02
i hope no-one minds me writing something for those two innocent children… i am just so upset and sad like everyone..and just wanted to write something…if it does’nt have a place here..tell me and i’ll remove it..Right now – It just puts everything else into perspective life love money work holidays homes families.and football….
Peace.
About This Site
Welcome to Football Poets -- a club for all football poets, lovers of football and lovers of (alternative) poetry. Discover poets in every league from respected internationals at the top of their game to young hopefuls in the school playground.
Publish your football poems here and then discuss them with your team mates and fans. We're archived by The British Library, so your masterpieces are in the safe hands of a world-class keeper. What a result!
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Latest Poems
John Gilbert Ellis
28th November 2024
joe morris
26th November 2024
Denys E. W. Jones
26th November 2024
Gacina Bozidar
26th November 2024
Wynn Wheldon
26th November 2024
joe morris
17th November 2024
Crispin Thomas
17th November 2024
kevin halls
10th November 2024
joe morris
10th November 2024
Clik The Mouse
10th November 2024
Crispin’s Corner
In Memoriam
Kick It Out & Christmas Truce
Latest Comments
27th November 2024 at 5:55 am
‘You’re Supposed To Be At Home’ is an excellent and moving poem Denys.
You start off thinking it’s just about another oft-sung chant, one we personally heard a lot last season throughout our second relegation in a row here at Forest Green(FGR) ! I always love poems where you think they are saying one thing and then they suddenly pull you deeper to somewhere or something else else.
I’m currently helping in a local school for FGR in a voluntary capacity using football to help young students with reading. At an upcoming session we will tackle racism, just like we did in workshops at football schools and grounds when we first started this site 24 years ago. I’m gonna try and weave your poem into a session.
We’ve added it to the Anti- Racism/Kick It Out section under Crispin’s Corner.
Best C
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26th November 2024 at 1:59 pm
Great poem and great to see you back Wyn.
Don’t leave it so long next time my friend!
More please.
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13th September 2024 at 6:14 pm
Welcome to Football Poets Beth
Great evocative poem Beth….
More please !
Haiku always welcome.
Hope we (FGR) get to play you again soon
Best
Crispin
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26th July 2024 at 6:25 pm
Great poem Mike Bartram. Eddie was a legend, affectionately known in Liverpool as, “the first hooligan.” Even the hoolies were well dressed in those days. The amazing thing was he was only 26 when that picture was taken. He’d played for Everton youth team and was well known to the players. He never got arrested. They threw him out and he climbed back in, just in time for Derek Temples winner.
I used the picture of him being tackled to the ground on the front cover of my book, “Once Upon a rhyme in Football.” It’s worth looking on youtube and finding the re-enactment of the Wembley scene. Frank Skinner and Baddiel went around to Eddies home in the 1990’s and acted it out on the green outside. It’s hilarious, especially all the effort they put in to get Eddie sober enough to shoot the scene.
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10th July 2024 at 6:07 pm
Hi Crispin,
I don’t know if you’ve see the picture in social media today…
a picture of a teenage Lionel Messi cradling a baby in Africa as part of a photoshoot…. the family had won a lottery to have their baby pictured with him….
the photographer has just revealed that the baby is actually in fact Lamine Yamal!!!!
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26th May 2024 at 2:30 pm
Hi Denys…
Re Man City:
OK it was 20 years ago but Criag Wilson did write this and a few others on them back in 04/05.
BTW I’m more Forest Green Rover since 2014 (and Chelsea) these days . I drum and am a standing season ticket holder .
Best
Crispin
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29th April 2024 at 2:47 pm
Hi Denys,
Yes Richard Williams you’re a brilliant wordsmith, my friend. When I first saw your football poetry I thought it was the superb Guardian sports and music writer. I once had the honour of sitting next to Richard Williams while at the Independent on the sports desk. He writes about music and sport with immense knowledge and authority. I’ve read a couple of Richard’s books recently. Great writer rather like you Richard Williams the Pompey fan. Congratulations on promotion.
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28th April 2024 at 5:59 pm
Thanks Denys. Yes your replay poem was superb.
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26th April 2024 at 4:46 pm
Nice work, Joe. You were quick off the mark with that! Good one from Richard Williams too I see.
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25th April 2024 at 7:33 pm
Hi Denys,
Thanks mate. I’ll do it now.
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