Football Poets

’tis some hiatus
that now prevails
the calm before the storm
a’for the Premiership finally sails

and a window of opportunity beckons
where fiscal infidelity entails
the loosening of purse strings
and panicking in the sales!

i like spilling mistakes
they kan be so funnee sometimes

i like spilling mistakes
all over the screen
all over my post-its
all over my torn-off bits of envelope
all over anything I’m using, as makeshift jotting […]

at one time, my old boots – were older than me!
hand me downs, that never really fitted
laces that I could barely tie, on those cold, cold days
when you could take both meanings, of the term ‘committed’

nowadays, […]

My Blue Heaven
is Stamford Bridge
but also a runner
in last night’s final race, the 8:40 at Ballybrit

and yes, this bally Brit
(wannabe Paddy)
fell for it, let the heart rule the head
choosing a bet by gee-gee’s […]

I didn’t have to be here
in this particular spot
to know
to feel
to justify
to resolve
that I had to
that I wanted to
that I needed …
to win

I was here in Tawin
under a big black moody sky
having cycled alo […]

Alas, poor Yorick!
I drew him well
slotted the ball between his legs
and scored with a yell!

“Hooraytio”
shouteth the crowdio

“Offside – Misquoted line!”
shouteth the Shakespeare police

Inspiration?
Well the words don’t jump out at me
like a bunny

and they’re not supplied
by Stephen Fry
i.e. guaranteed funny

and so I plod along
plod, plod, plod

plucking out a word or two, along the way
hoping […]

how shall I paint thee, in prose?
for the artist’s palette has already spilled into the sky
and their deft strokes
have dabbed and daubed at will;
the colours have run
and jumped
with joy
surfing the woolly waves […]

from football
to velocipede
that’ll do me nicely

as the USA
surprise the Spanish
to put it most precisely

so out of form
it’s not their norm
let’s hope they take it on the chin

while the Spanish mourn
the […]

There’s not a ripple –
not a single solitary crack
in the duplicated sky;
no skewered sheen
no fissured fjord
no swallowed swell;
hard to believe this saline mirror
is the toe-tipped Atlantic
that normally beats […]

whither without football?
I tackle the classics
and plunder

I dig with my thumb
through the drills of pun and punditry
packed with wonder

I hark back to Harkness
Hinton, Hudson, Hollins, Houseman
mixing Mulligan […]

sometimes we fans forget that you’re just a man

“I am not a man
I am Fashanu”

director ponders, stroking his jaw
snip, snip
cutting room floor

“I am not a man
I’m […]

This word, goes before that word
and it’s in the right order –
so is this a poem?

According to the musings of Coleridge,
yes.

But common sentiment would say,
no.

With the right words in the write order
I’ll […]

if only true love
followed our early desires
if only that nascent passion
could still start up fires

if only a pumping heart
could still beat as loud
if only to show the world
the love of which we’re proud

if […]

Football
summed up by Sir Alex
as an expletive

That’s me!
Even after many years
of trying
(throw in a rhyme)
and crying

TV – in the corner
remote control
2 many choices
2 many voices
so compromise –
we flick
back and forth

I want
the heart
the soul
the […]

another sheet
crumpled
and tossed onto the fire

another stanza
started
and then discarded

another couplet
without rhythm
and lacking rhyme

another syllable
with no particular place to go

and as for […]

There comes a point in time
When with or without rhyme
A curmudgeonly acceptance comes into play;
When forlorn hope
Pins up its ‘little dog lost’ poster
When squeeky bums fall silent
And the ‘business end’ of the […]

Four four too
Increased watchability
Losing ground

Subliminal, to a degree –
early comparisons
had him marked out as a Pele
then at different stages
Osgood, Cooke
Bell, Book
Rivelino, Rivera, Gerson
(all pre Merson)
Puskas, Cryuff, Best
Gascoigne, Hoddle, Robson, […]