New Season’s Early Thoughts+Poetry Workshops
1 FOOTBALL POETS & CRISPIN ON MYSPACE
2 NEW SEASON – EARLY THOUGHTS -YOUR POEMS
3 INNER GOAL the poetry of football-a journey in rhyme
4 2008 FOOTBALL POETRY WORKSHOPS. Dates etc
5 Workshop Days Blog
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1 FOOTBALL POETS ON MYSPACE visit the site
Football Poets on MySpace
CRISPIN THE POET ON MYSPACE visit the site
Crispin The Poet on MySpace
2 NEW SEASON’S EARLY THOUGHTS – YOUR POEMS
So we survived! Somehow. It’s been tough, but it’s finally back. Money still flying round, new hopes,new dreams and new faces as old fears and problems re-surface. Enchanted and disenchanted fans alike have your say now. “Themed” poems appear (eventually) in the comments / messages section at : Football Poets on MySpace
18 Aug One week in non humphries
17 Aug Art Deco! Alan McKean
15 Aug The time is nigh! Clik the mouse
13 Aug The Day The Posts Went Up Robbie Kennedy Bennett
11 Aug Great Expectations of Hard Times? Charles Dickens
10 Aug The Future non humphries
31 Jul Going Up, Going Down Andy Lockett
31 Jul Reflections Andy Lockett
23 Jul What’s Occuring? Now! kevin raymond
23 Jul The Premiership Stuart Butler
22 Jul Expect more of the same John Oliver
22 Jul Lack of Expectations Non Humphries
22 Jul Late Expectations Crispin Thomas
16 Jul Time To Get Real…. Lads! kevin raymond
3. 2008/2009 FOOTBALL POETRY WORKSHOPS
August 08
1 ADDLESTONE Library
8 WALTON & HERSHAM Libraries
30 RAGGED HEDGE FAIR Nr Cirencester performance 3pm
31 RAGGED HEDGE FAIR Nr Cirencester 4pm
Sept 08
7 STROUD Fringe Market Tavern (Outdoors)+Adam Horvitz – Free .
4 ABOUT FOOTBALL POETRY WORKSHOPS & LINKS
We’re now taking bookings for Spet-Dec 2008 & 2009 . We run and book Football Poetry Workshops all year round all over the UK. . Do get in touch if interested. For info on workshops contact
ctm@crispinthomas.orangehome.co.uk
or phone 01453 757376 & 07837 798463
SOME WORKSHOP LINKS & USEFUL ORGANISATIONS
Click on coloured link to view then close page or hit Back button
WORLD CUP WORKSHOP BISHOPS CASTLE PHOTOS 10.6.06 Pics from the day with students and Crispin.
EVERTON FC ‘ Making A Difference’ Workshop Review Crispin ThomasSession at Everton FC Extra Time Study Support Centre
FOOTBALL STUFF Crispin Thomas BBC Video Nation (Real Player) Crispin at Forest Green Rovers with Casio and a ball.!
To find out more about KICK IT OUT click here
Kick It Out
Show Racism The Red Card
Football Unites Racism Divides
Pioneering Black Footballers
Women’s Football-A Brief History
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4
INNER GOAL
The poetry of football..a journey in rhyme
by CRISPIN THOMAS
100 pages – 66 poems 66 hakius and line drawings spanning 10 years of writing and 50 years of watching football(1957-2007)
“Poems in the street, in the ground and in the heart.
…poetry with balls.!” Michael Foreman
“One of the pioneers of football poetry.Who ate all the pioneers”?”
Attila The Stockbroker
Football Poets Books in paperback ISBN 9780955 737602 £8.99
INNER GOAL is now available
ON-LINE from:AMAZON BOOKS click here
INNER GOAL
BY POST
A few signed first run promo copies available at 7.99 +pp (£1.51)
Write to:Football Poets ,4 The Retreat, Butterow, Stroud GL5 2LS
(Tel 01453 757376) enclosing address+ a cheque for £9.50 made out to “OUT TO LUNCH ”
SHOPS:
National Football Musuem ,Sir Tom Finney Way Preston PR1 6PA
e-mail enquiries@nationalfootball museum.com
www.nationalfootballmuseum.com Tel 01772 908442
Stroud Bookshop , 23 High Street ,Stroud 01453 756646
Made In Stroud, 16 Kendrick Street Stroud 01453 840265
5. BLOG-A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A FOOTBALL POET
from Stroud to Morpeth and Plymouth..and from Sutton Coldfied to Mansfield , Long Eaton and Stratford On Avon !
Hi again .Time to subject you to a Workshop day (well 10 days actually!) in the life of a football poet….on the road and on the rails !
SO WHAT’S A DAY REALLY LIKE?
I felt it necessary to dispel the legendary Take That / Frank Lampard / Ronaldo / Wannabe Football Poet Laureate celebrity image and myth of limos, riders and executive treatment that it doesn’t entail .
A HAPPY WORLD BOOK DAY IN MANSFIELD & LONG EATON!
I’m just back from a great school in Sutton Coldfield where I ended up performing with 15 children reading their rhymes and raps for the first time in front of 400 in the main hall . Next stop was an invitation from Mansfield Town FC’s Stags Study Support Centre to work in a local Primary school for World Book Day . We made tiny books and wrote football poems and thoughts for aliens, and for anyone who would listen. In the evening it was a mad dash to Long Eaton where I worked with Jim Sells of The National Literacy Trust and a local puppeteer/story teller for Blokes On Board , complete with a PC and library-equipped bus!” This is an on-going Reading Champions project to inspire “blokes” to go into schools to encourage boys to read .
WORKING WITH HEROES & VILLAINS IN MORPETH
For two days I was back in Morpeth, Northumberland at King Edward V1 , a thriving and high achieving grammar school where I work with 160 Year 9 pupils. The theme of the two days is ‘Heroes and Villains’, with a strong focus on Martin Luther King . Each student brings in a picture of a hero and villain. Mine were : Roy of The Rovers and Darth Vader. Two groups writing poems on chosen heroes like Alan Shearer, Slash from Guns n’Roses and Martin Luther King to notorious villains who included (bizarrely) Sponge Bob Square Pants, Osama Bin Laden and Hitler. We also created a 15 minute play which we performed in front of 160 pupils about the life of Arthur Wharton ,the first ever black professional footballer in the late 1800’s. Finishing at 3.20pm it was a sleepy two hour wait for my 5.30pm train home to my cottage Then a 4 and
a half hour train journey back to Cheltenham. On finally arriving it’s a
dark and windy 45 minute drive to Stroud listening to Bolton vs. Arsenal in extra time. Rock ‘n Roll!”
KICKING INTO READING IN PLYMOUTH
The following week found me in Plymouth where I spent 5 days. I worked for Kick Into Reading with around 700 children alongside some great Plymouth Argyle trainers and coaches (Mark and Debbie) and one director (David) Football poems , riddles, games and stories all week-long in Plymouth libraries.
DAILY WORKINGS
When you start to link in as a one-off visitor with the intricate daily workings of modern schools, prisons, libraries, football grounds and study support centres the timetables, paperwork and lesson plans never fail to surprise . As a result I now involve no paperwork in the setting up of my workshops , in the effort to leave as small a football poetry footprint as possible and to stay as carbon free as possible. To this end, I go everywhere by train which is often veryearly and incredibly stressy , but far more relaxing than dnving .`The workshops are run on fun lines. All I want to do is inspire, from getting students thinking , writing and reading to getting up and performing work with gusto in front of their giggling mates and just having fun with words. I like sending myself up, and love making the kids laugh (at me), my silly poems, and to make them think a little deeper and laterally maybe. I want them to take the time to compose stuff on their own and then wax lyrical. To think and feel in the words of Catherine Tate..”I can do that ”
For the younger ones, we usually kick off with an action football poem or song that everyone can join in on, and I’ll do some stuff of my own . We use PowerPoint images to highlight any and everything to do with football. We are there to explore football , to write poems as a group and individually. One hour school based lessons are a mad rush, and I prefer longer with each class for quality, but however long , we always somehow get there. We always include a spontaneous group poem on the flip chart or white board (or blackboards in Porto) and usually leave about 15 minutes to perform them all. Here’s a poem I wrote on the way home from Morpeth opposite some bloke who got on at Leeds and kept snoring. It’s about my first ever Cup visit to Middlesboro FC. Allegedly! Go well! Crispin
15 Feb Down By The Riverside Crispin Thomas
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!
My Account
Latest Poems
joe morris
28th April 2024
Richard Williams
26th April 2024
joe morris
25th April 2024
Denys E. W. Jones
25th April 2024
kevin halls
23rd April 2024
Alex Saynor
23rd April 2024
joe morris
23rd April 2024
Crispin Thomas
22nd April 2024
Denys E. W. Jones
21st April 2024
joe morris
20th April 2024
Crispin’s Corner
In Memoriam
Kick It Out & Christmas Truce
Latest Comments
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.
See in context
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.
See in context
25th April 2024 at 1:56 pm
Thanks Joe,
you might like to write a poem yourself on the same subject…
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23rd April 2024 at 4:03 pm
Hi Denys
With you all the way on the abolition of FA Cup replays. What are they doing to the game?
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23rd April 2024 at 3:59 pm
Hi Crispin,
Yes sorry mate. Villa are still in Europe. Mistake rectified.
Cheers
Joe
See in context
20th April 2024 at 12:04 pm
Hi Joe
Shouldn’t your title read your poem Farewell Europe England to everyone exccept Aston Villa ?
I know you mention them in your poem , but I do feel sorry for Villa re the national press .
Largely ignored. the hype was was all about Man City & Arsenal with a bit of a nod to the Hammers..but hardly a mention of Villa..
So well done to them
C
.
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19th March 2024 at 8:00 am
Hi Crispin. Chris Sutton on the radio has gone for a Chelsea v Coventry final. As we know anything can happen in the Cup, and I reckon we can go to the final.
We’re still in with a chance of the play offs too, so lots to go for.
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19th March 2024 at 7:41 am
Hey Kev
Let the masses drool over their odds on City v Unted Final, but who knows how pressure can hit.
Cov and Chels will be rightly labelled as having no chance..but hey …stranger things have happened..
so Chelsea v Coventry…that’s the Final for us!
Best
C
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