Football Poets

More Goalkeeper Poems & Football Poetry Workshops

1 FOOTBALL POETS & CRISPIN ON MYSPACE
2 YOUR GOALKEEPER POEMS
3 2008/09 FOOTBALL POETRY WORKSHOPS. Dates etc
4 INNER GOAL the poetry of football-a journey in rhyme
5 Workshop Days Blog
——————————————————————-
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. . YOUR GOALKEEPER POEMS
Let’s hear it in verse, rhyme. limerick, acrostic, sonnet, ballad,free verse, haiku, rengu et al for those un-sung heroes. Inspired by the recent programme ‘The Loneliness Of The Goalkeeper’ broadcast on BBC Radio 4..Those receiving poetic name-checks to date, (in order of appearance) are Jackson, Banks, Jennings, Bartram, Gilmar, Green, Almunia, Wharton, Swift, Popl Paul II , Albert Camus, Ceci, Friedel, Cech, Reina and Barthez. .

We kick off with a great example of a 2004 poem from P Maguiire, Flagged up by a reader/teacher (Mike Greenfield) it was used recently, with a group of year 9 students who loved it.

.Also just in some “Olden Goalies”( from the archives) ..and Raith Roversaholic Llew Beaton out there in New Kirkcaldy ,Australia .Featuring: William ‘Fatty’ Foulke, (who filled the posts at time when ‘fatty’ wasn’t politically in-correct por a problem like today, ) Julio Iglesias and even Benny Hill.

a href=”http://footballpoets.org/poems/gordon-banks/”target=”_blank”> Gordon Banks – P.Maguire
Olden Goalie:William “Fatty” Foulke – Llew Beaton
No Real Ambition:Julio Iglesias -Llew Beaton
Benny For Your Thoughts – Llew Beaton
2008
05 Nov Between The Sticks – Kevin Halls
04 Nov England’s No 6 – non humphries
04 Nov John (Stonewall) Jackson – John J O’Connor
01 Nov Big Pat From The County Down – John J O’Connor
29 Oct I Dreamt I Woz Gilmar!-kevin raymond
29 Oct Commitment – non humphries
28 Oct Statue In The Mist Re-visited – Crispin Thomas
28 Oct Fogbound and forgotten about! – Kevin Raymond
27 Oct Keeper of Dreams- Mark Thomas
27 Oct Banks of England- English Banana
26 Oct Arsenal versus Robert Green – non humphries
26 Oct Five foot Six-between the stix- John Oliver
25 Oct I Wanna Be A Custodian!- kevin raymond
25 Oct This position- non humphries
25 Oct Goalkeepers – non humphries
25 Oct Loneliness of The Goalie – Crispin Thomas
Oct 08 GK Skills – non humphries
Oct 08 Gloves With No Name – non humphries
Oct 08 Almunia – non humphries
…………….and from the archives….
Burning Black Star-Crispin Thomas
Arthur Wharton – Elaine Fearn
Frank Swift – Peter Goulding
God’s Goalkeeper-Clik The Mouse
The Polish Goalkeeper From Rome -kevin raymond
All Goalkeepers Are Mad Haiku-I Ku
Gloves Unkind – S B Ingle
Goalkeeper’s Limerick – Alan McKean
Death Of A Goalkeeper Alan McKean
Hopelessness Of A Goalkeeper – Number Ten
The Apex of The Team-Tony Lewis Jones
Camus Played In Goal For Algeria-Christopher T.George
In Praise Of The Un-sung – Neale Blackburn
A Goalkeeper Called Rogerio Ceri – Héber Bensi

———————————————————————
3. 2008/2009 FOOTBALL POETRY WORKSHOPS
W= Workshop G=Gig/Performance
Oct 08
9 BBC Radio Gloucestershire – Breakfast Show (G)
10 WEST DRAYTON Cherry Lane Primary School (W)
19 NANTWICH Cheshire.Railway Hotel 2pm-6pm Crispin (G)
24 STROUD Words Marathon ,Star Anise Café 8pm-10pm
November 08
15 STROUD The Space, Lansdown, Crispin +Adam Horovitz (G)
25 TELFORD AFC Telford Study Support Centre .(W)
January 09
21/28 BRIDGEND Library .Read Amillion Words Years 7/8/9
21/28 PORTHCAWL Library .Read Amillion Words Years 7/8/9

ABOUT FOOTBALL POETRY WORKSHOPS & LINKS
We’re now taking bookings for Oct-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
——————————————————————————
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

Categories:

Crispin's World Cup Corner

You can follow any comments on this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.