Obsessed as we are with Beckham’s toe
Well I’m sitting here in the garden, sitting under the apple tree with nobody else but me, having just dug the potato patch and now I’m grabbing a breather before the wife arrives home with new orders and the kids with new demands for money.
End of season…Radio 5 on … a cup of tea… beautiful April afternoon… so perfectly English…A little moment of leisure – “A dull life this if full of care, We have no time to stand and stare” etc..
Which reminds me – if anyone out there is a fan of W.H. Davies, the tramp poet creator of these famous lines, then our musical-poetical-dramatical radio ballad of his life is available from us for the princely sum of £10. “Days That Have Been”, the Stroud Football Poets first CD, grew out of a commissioned play. Davies lived the last few years of his life in Nailsworth (that’s where Forest Green F.C. is) near Stroud. A fascinating cove, he lost a leg in Canada, riding the rails in a bid to get to the Yukon Gold Rush. After that, he went on a peg leg tramp round England, hawking his poems and pins, sleeping in the workhouse and in doss houses, until patronised by G.B. Shaw and Edward Thomas. Fame and some fortune quickly followed and he was lionised by high society around the time of the Great War. It’s a good story – and well told by us on the CD!
But for the moment, I shall enjoy the excitement of the last days of the season – and then enjoy the leisure of that brief interlude before the World Cup takes over our lives. More on the website about our ideas for that e’er long, but for the moment, keep those Beckham poems coming in!
“A dull life this if full of woe,
Obsessed as we are with Beckham’s toe.”
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
joe morris
16th May 2024
joe morris
11th May 2024
joe morris
9th May 2024
kevin halls
8th May 2024
joe morris
6th May 2024
joe morris
4th May 2024
Crispin Thomas
2nd May 2024
joe morris
28th April 2024
Richard Williams
26th April 2024
joe morris
25th April 2024
Crispin’s Corner
In Memoriam
Kick It Out & Christmas Truce
Latest Comments
29th April 2024 at 2:47 pm
Hi Denys,
Yes Richard Williams you’re a brilliant wordsmith, my friend. When I first saw your football poetry I thought it was the superb Guardian sports and music writer. I once had the honour of sitting next to Richard Williams while at the Independent on the sports desk. He writes about music and sport with immense knowledge and authority. I’ve read a couple of Richard’s books recently. Great writer rather like you Richard Williams the Pompey fan. Congratulations on promotion.
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28th April 2024 at 5:59 pm
Thanks Denys. Yes your replay poem was superb.
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26th April 2024 at 4:46 pm
Nice work, Joe. You were quick off the mark with that! Good one from Richard Williams too I see.
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25th April 2024 at 7:33 pm
Hi Denys,
Thanks mate. I’ll do it now.
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25th April 2024 at 1:56 pm
Thanks Joe,
you might like to write a poem yourself on the same subject…
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23rd April 2024 at 4:03 pm
Hi Denys
With you all the way on the abolition of FA Cup replays. What are they doing to the game?
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23rd April 2024 at 3:59 pm
Hi Crispin,
Yes sorry mate. Villa are still in Europe. Mistake rectified.
Cheers
Joe
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20th April 2024 at 12:04 pm
Hi Joe
Shouldn’t your title read your poem Farewell Europe England to everyone exccept Aston Villa ?
I know you mention them in your poem , but I do feel sorry for Villa re the national press .
Largely ignored. the hype was was all about Man City & Arsenal with a bit of a nod to the Hammers..but hardly a mention of Villa..
So well done to them
C
.
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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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