Stuart Butler
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Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets 8 years, 11 months ago
Not Sherwood FOREST
Nor Lincoln GREEN,
But FOREST GREEN;
Not Robin Hood and Little John,
But Dale Vince and David Drew;
Not outlaws and poachers,
But left-wingers and goal poachers;
Not the pollution of […]
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Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets 8 years, 12 months ago
My seat was down the front, right by the pitch,
With a view right out to open fields, new leaf trees,
Scudding clouds, a grand sky horizon, and two billboards
That tried to send their message down to the New […]
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Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets 9 years, 4 months ago
Forest Green was, as historian Tim Barnard comments:
‘A staunchly Non Conformist village,
made up of Baptists and Congregationalists’ –
Although the club was based at a pub,
‘The Jovial Forester … Lower F […]
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Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets 9 years, 4 months ago
Immaculate in spotless cricket whites,
Keeping wicket on the village green,
Up past Slad’s crossroad war memorial,
Betwixt Purgatory and Paradise,
To where 7323 Private Edward Hogg’s name
(7th Battalion, Glo […] -
Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets 9 years, 5 months ago
When War broke out, the British public cried
“We’ll be in Berlin by Christmas”. But
By Christmas hundreds of thousands had died,
As Mons, The Marne, Ypres and Messine cut
Down the youth of Europe, while Fland […] -
Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets 9 years, 5 months ago
It’s a bit Herbert Marcuse,
A bit One Dimensional Man:
A unification of opposites,
A harmonisation of contradictions,
Where liberal-democratic capitalism
Gives that tantalising illusion of freedom,
Whilst […]
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Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets 9 years, 5 months ago
It wasn’t, in fact, a bolt from the blue,
Instead the 1914 Truce was part of a pattern,
That both preceded that Christmas and continued beyond:
There were ‘cushy’ sectors, involving ‘lais […]
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Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets 9 years, 5 months ago
When you’ve been out ‘ere as long as I ‘ave,
You get to know the ropes and have a laugh,
Keep’ yer ‘ead down aint enough for Fritz,
You’ve got to show you can live and let live.
When Fritz has his breakfast, […]
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Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets 9 years, 10 months ago
Midsummer Night’s Dream:
I wake up to a nightmare,
England are Bottom. -
Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets 10 years, 1 month ago
Board game metaphor:
The name’s Monopoly now,
Not Subbuteo. -
Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets 10 years, 4 months ago
There was, of course, more than one football match
In the long line of unofficial truces
That stretched all along the front in Flanders;
Indeed, the matches themselves were a sort of climax,
Punctuating the peace […] -
Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets 10 years, 4 months ago
The Beautiful Game
Gave freedom-fighters respite
In freedom’s struggle.Apartheid’s victims,
In Robben Island’s prison
Played the Peoples’ Game.It was an escape,
But also an expression:
The need for new r […] -
Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets 10 years, 5 months ago
18th Century Rural Direct Action
versus 19th Century Industrial Capitalism~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
A normal feature of my teenage years
Was hours spent queuing for football tickets,
But this autumn’s trip down memory l […]
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Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets 10 years, 7 months ago
I think the love for a football team
Transcends the oft quoted tribal loyalty,
And involves, instead, individuality,
Something subliminal within the personality –
For it’s all about the dreaded mortality:On t […]
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Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets 11 years, 3 months ago
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 dubbined,
Though still smeared wit […] -
Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets 11 years, 5 months ago
Haiku for Nympsfield War Memorial
As I write these lines,
The young men of the village
Arrive for the match.Nympsfield village,
Catholic sanctuary,
High-up on the wolds.And at the cross-roads,
A […] -
Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets 11 years, 10 months ago
Steam trains whistling through the night,
Wagons buffering up in the marshalling yards,
The milk man with his early morning horse and cart,
‘Papers and comics land with a thwack in the hall;
Eggs, bacon, tea and t […] -
Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets 12 years, 3 months ago
It was déjà vu all over again,
But with a football boot in the present:
Trains full of fans but without the toilet rolls;
A minibus of men but stone cold sober;
One woman in a pub – reading a kindle;
Swindon r […] -
Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets 12 years, 11 months ago
Wordsworth grew up fostered alike by beauty and by fear,
I grew up on trains, football, politics and beer:
“No platform for Fascists” was the cry
And “Swindon until I die”;
Now the steam is locked in a museum, […] -
Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets 13 years ago
I am going on the march on Saturday,
And not watching football because
“It’s the same the whole world over,
It’s the poor wot gets the blame,
It’s the rich wot gets the pleasure
Aint it all a crying shame”: […] - Load More
About This Site
Welcome to Football Poets -- a club for all football poets, lovers of football and lovers of (alternative) poetry. Discover poets in every league from respected internationals at the top of their game to young hopefuls in the school playground.
Publish your football poems here and then discuss them with your team mates and fans. We're archived by The British Library, so your masterpieces are in the safe hands of a world-class keeper. What a result!
My Account
Latest Poems
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Mike Bartram
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Crispin’s Corner
In Memoriam
Kick It Out & Christmas Truce
Latest Comments
19th March 2024 at 8:00 am
Hi Crispin. Chris Sutton on the radio has gone for a Chelsea v Coventry final. As we know anything can happen in the Cup, and I reckon we can go to the final.
We’re still in with a chance of the play offs too, so lots to go for.
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19th March 2024 at 7:41 am
Hey Kev
Let the masses drool over their odds on City v Unted Final, but who knows how pressure can hit.
Cov and Chels will be rightly labelled as having no chance..but hey …stranger things have happened..
so Chelsea v Coventry…that’s the Final for us!
Best
C
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29th January 2024 at 10:03 pm
Hi Crispin,
How are you doing mate? Yes, you’re probably right but hey football is all about emotion and passion and I just love writing about the game. I try to keep my poetry to a reasonable length but there’s so much to write about the game and its literature just lends itself naturally to poetry. Sometimes I just get completely carried and I do apologise for the length of my poetry but it’s a great thrill to be associated with Football Poets.
Cheers mate
Joe
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10th January 2024 at 7:52 pm
You’re right of course Joe but…..it’s actually more of a big welcome break for everyone who is not into Premier League ..I’m talking fans of EFL National League and below…..
Btw …is this actually your longest poem ever !?
Best
Crispin
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8th January 2024 at 4:45 pm
Thanks!
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8th January 2024 at 10:42 am
There’s something so evocative and nostalgic for football fans the world over, in ‘revisiting’ old lost grounds.
Occasionally some remnants remain, with perhaps part of a wall or part or a stand or thre shape of a terrace, but often they are only still there in faded images and in our heads..
Great stuff Graham
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4th January 2024 at 10:13 am
A great idea and well executed. Thanks Graham.
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19th November 2023 at 1:45 pm
Thanks Gacina, glad you liked it, and I have just posted a new one about our points deduction…
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7th November 2023 at 6:34 pm
Today B.B.C post on F.B was titled:Premier League reduced to 18 clubs? I really think it may be interesting to see if this would be Everton’s nightmare and this poem is well suited for this concern.If there would be more difficult battle to stay if there were 18 teams.Great poem and somehow true.
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6th November 2023 at 4:43 pm
Ashington FC have launched a £50,000 Crowdfunder appeal to meet the increased costs of winning promotion last season, to pay for urgent stadium improvements, travel costs and equipment
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