Football Poets

CONGRATULATIONS!!!! Kevin Raymond 1,000 Poems

CONGRATULATIONS!

One of our regular poets, Kevin Raymond, has just today – passed a magnificent personal milestone …. 1,000 poems accepted onto this website – that’s some feat Kev!

In Crispin’s words :
‘Prolific and consistent or what?…

Big up, Kev.

And yes, Kevin was not the first – Peter Goulding hit that milestone a while back, my apologies to Peter for not acknowledging it at the time. I can remember to the day when Peter first posted, and I was enthralled ever since.

Back to Kevin’s achievement :

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We asked Kevin for some of his personal favourites, that we could feature here today.
He said he loved them all – and was just happy to have somewhere he could share them with like minded football fans.

I’d loved to have trawled through Kevin’s back catalogue (oo’er missus), but to shorten the search I decided that the best poems I’ve seen from almost everyone on the site – have been based on their first match – or featured their dad – often the best has in fact been the two topics combined.

And Kevin submitted one recently in just that vein – I hope it’s not too painful for Kevin to show that one again here.
It’s wonderfully poignant.

Stevenage Road, St Stephen’s Morning.

We seemed to talk of it for ever,
The pair of us, going to watch a game
So me dad bought tickets for the terraces
And suddenly a youngsters life, was never quite the same.

Jam packed double deckers
Crawling down The New Kings Road
A short walk up from Parsons Green
After strolling through a park, to Fulham’s Craven Cottage home.

Rowing crews on the river Thames
Went spurting off toward a bend
As families, fans and long time friends
Looked toward a past years end.

Snake like queues at the turnstiles
The wiff of hot chestnuts in the street
A nip of brandy to warm yer cockles
As excessed masses stamped cold feet.

“Home Fans” said a blackboard
One click, that’s it, yer in
Treasured stub stuffed in yer pocket
Midst the rattles and the singing.

“Cor don’t the pitch look lovely?”
With morning dew still on the grass
It’s Fulham, Man United and suddenly
It’s here and now the action starts.

“Keep it away from Bobby Charlton
Look out for Georgie Best
That Johnny Haynes plays with his brains
Oi ref that Denis Law’s a pest!”

I’ve absolutely no idea what year it was?
And to be straight up honest I don’t care
But I recall a St Stephens morning, Craven Cottage
And that lovely everlasting memory
Of me dad and me, stood together, cheering there!

.

© kev 008
For George Raymond R.I.P. May 26th1926 – Nov 7th 2008.

Goodnight Dad and may your God go with you.

One of the very first games me dad and me ever went to, together.
I don’t remember the year, score or whatever. What I do remember, quite vividly, however was the whole wonderful experence of the build up, the game itself and afterwards, the packed West London terraced streets as the stadium emptied, me dad and me catching the bus home to Pimlico where we lived, and not having to buy a ticket, coz me dad was a London Transport bus conductor, so him and his family got to travel for nisht!* *Yiddish for nothing.

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