Football Poets

* * *

trademark free kicks end

Roberto Carlos retires

in Brazil they sigh

* * *

union flags or jacks?

who cares when you win the group

team GB are through

in Twenty Twelve we find ourselves enraptured by the style
as seventy odd thousand patrol the Wembley mile
with names like Smith and Houghton and Marta of Brazil
these women heroes of today they pass and glide […]

no heeby GBs

it’s just like watching Brazil

in red white and blue

sometimes you feel the real hope lies
with those who seek a deeper prize
they play with fire in their eyes
and passion that you can’t disguise
let’s leave it to the women

they stand for whatever we deem
to be the […]

I’m looking out for highlights
and you may disagree
for some of you they’re lowlights
but they’ve still humoured me

and some may say the only
real highlights that we’ve seen
were those on TV late at night
but […]

Andrea Pirlo
master chef in a blue shirt
he makes perfect chips

~ ~ ~

captain fantastic’s
long balls and inventive play
make us look like kids

~ ~ ~

Pirlo with his looks
and his cheeky penalty
bellissimo gol […]

watching England play
sometimes I’ve been heard to scream
“please just pass the ball !!”

~ ~ ~

who can fathom why
we can’t pass like others can
with the skill we have?

~ ~ ~

childhood skills we had
did we […]

~ ~ ~

on England haiku

three lions roar again

from no flags to sudden dreams

while we hope as one

~ ~ ~

on France haiku

daylight Ribery

will they drop like croissant crumbs

falling to their knees? […]

love or loathe the man

how he stands or how he strides

Christiano rocks

all day long I’m in a state
can’t think straight or concentrate
hard to wait or just relate
turn to emails text a mate
will the match confirm our fate
watching England ?

torn like Kevin pub or home
just one TV […]

watching on two screens

hosts and Russian dreams are dashed

Greeks and Czechs go through

to a screen in town

like some festival at night

this crowd rise as one

three lines on a page

your(o) haikus dearly missed

are you lost for words?

~ ~ ~

Butler Lewis-Jones

Gibbons Conneally McKean

Ingle and Hy Koo

~ ~ ~

when your surname is

Papastathopoulos

Sokratis will do

anything’s still possible
a knife-edge to endure
some say it’s improbable
many are unsure –
we’ve seen the Spaniards with their drum
the Oranje future’s dim
the France game was a fairy-tale
desperate and […]

loving the no expectations
with no disappointment to follow
where humble pride but a faint hope inside
is a much better outcome to swallow

and now we know how all those other teams felt
all those so-called […]

those painted faces hair and clothes
those bouncing girls and men
they bay like armies off to war
why can’t we sing like them?

their energy drums wild and free
we never quite compare
our children’s songs and […]

way back in the fifties new Queen on the throne
all we had was comics in our basement home
tennis balls ice cream vans football in the street
coalman came on Fridays life was so complete
Blow Football clockwork […]

you are the team strip the boots and the ball
you are the reason it happens at all
you fan the fire you blow the flame
you sow the seeds at the heart of the game
you keep it going you make it tick
you are the […]