Football Poets

Summerbees

I knew of Mick and I knew of Nick,
But I didn’t know of your existence,
Until early one morning on the number 46 bus,
When I was reading a Swindon Town programme.

It was back in 1992,
And y […]

Do you remember that lazy afternoon
Back in August 1958?
Well, I bloody well do mate.
We were sitting on the bunker
At the end of platform four,
Just by the giant semaphore signal,
When 5050 The Earl of St […]

You called on Christmas Eve afternoon,
Carrying an unwrapped parcel,
A gift brought from memory lane:
David Dangerfield’s dad’s football boots,
Slightly battered but proud and dubbinned,
Though still sme […]

It came upon a midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
When angels bent down to the earth,
And changed machine guns into harps,
And turned leaden bullets into golden carols
That drifted across no man’s l […]

We must have numbered a football team,
Umbrellas unfurled at the cenotaph,
Where we spoke of Walter Tull and Spurs,
And Swindon Town and Northampton Town
Footballers who fell in the Great War –
The rain p […]

Let the living answer the roll call of the dead:
Walter Tull of Spurs and Northampton Town KIA 1918;
And now the names from Forest Green:
Harry Watts was born in 1891 in Avening.
Harry joined the 6th Signal […]

The tension rises,
So does the thermometer,
And so will England.

I like visiting the Albert,
I like the way it commands a crossroads,

Welcoming all cardinal points of the compass,

Just like a traditional inn should,
I particularly like it when the football comes hom […]

From the best of times
To the worst of times, and then!
The best time ever!

Gareth Southgate W1A Penno haiku

‘We own the process.’
I’ve no idea what that means –
But I’m glad we do.

Just like Marlene
When falling in love again,
Dietrich can’t help it …

I know I shouldn’t
I shouldn’t mention the VAR
But I can’t help it

Kane proves he’s able,
Not the brother of Abel;
But still merciless

from Another Way
to a Midnight in Moscow
by the Quorner flag

It must have been 1965,
We were having a lunchtime kick-about.
‘It’s Good News Week’ by Hedgehoppers’ Anonymous
Was playing on someone’s transistor
Just behind the goal nearest the school,
Phil Vine was puffi […]

Now I’m not sure if there’s a debate here
About determinism and free will,
Or whether there’s just some sort of reflection
On 50 years spent going to the match,
That LS Lowry feeling of being lost in a crowd […]

I went searching for the soul of Forest Green,
Wandering intuitively, ad hoc
Inferentially, without any
A priori knowledge or insight:
It was a tabula rasa wander.

Northfields Road smacked of enclosed […]

Buddleia in broad gauge bloom down on Stroud station,
Crazy golf flags out at the Brunel Goods Shed,
As I lazily read the Stroud News on the train to London,
Until I came across Rodda Thomas of Crown and […]

The sea is calm tonight.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to […]

Enter Edgar, King Lear, Jon Parkin, Ye Beast, Dale Vince as Duke of Frocester, Scotty Bartlett and various morris dancers as footballers

Scene ; The white cliffs of Dover

‘Come on, sir; here’s the place: stand s […]

Our revels are starting – the game’s to be won,
Tis time to swap shirts before the day’s run,
I swap mine with Shakespeare, with a poem sublime,
Tis all about football, in memory’s rhyme:

‘Sphere! Leather sphere! […]

‘Referee!

You can see what’s going on!

Don’t look the other way!

You know the history of migration and colonialism!

Remember when Prince Rupert sailed to Barbados,

To keep the islands Royalist after his defea […]