Football Poets

Word Up For Kick It Out & Conkering Racism Now!

Hi Some poems and thoughts here..during these special awareness-raising days of October and Black History Month .Right here and right now..we are specifically looking for poems about kicking racsm out of football (and conkers of course!)
so please… keep them coming.(.nice one L Norman! would like ot perform that one?.. thanks- Crispin

Word-Up Kick-It-Out Rap

there has to be a space – there has to be a place
for ev’ry single member of the whole human race
but it starts in the playground – it starts as just a lark
it end up on the journey home-it ends up in the park
it ends up on the playing field -in the rain and thunder
sometimes you hear it-but you’re totally outnumbered
word up – be a beacon be a light
speak out – let your football burn bright
word up -rap the culprits in the eye
kick it out – time for racism to die
word up –

you can sing it you can wing it – you can act it out in class
you can trap it you can rap it – before the feelin’s pass
speak out – put it down upon the page
no doubt – life’s a stage..and this rage ..
we can erase it – -if we face it
word up -rap the culprits in the eye
kick it out – time for racism to die
word up –

you know-no-one has the right to abuse any other
no one has the right- be they stranger or brother
no one has the right to bully or to yell
but no one should be frightened to be the one to tell
but twenty years ago – and if your face was black
if you stood out on the footie-pitch – they’d be on your back
but take a look around you – from Africa today
great players everywhere- we love to see them play
and this world is changing – ya feel it coming through
and maybe lifes’s a lottery but football dreams come true
and who knows this time an Asian tomorrow
when one come through i said the rest will follow
word up -rap the culprits in the eye
kick it out – time for racism to die
word up

© crispin t – june 02

originally written and performed for the Kick It Out/Word Up Football Poetry event in Bradford during the World Cup this summer gone…now re-earthed for Black History Month and an exciting project which Stuart Butler has wonderfully instigated involving football poetry in schools on the same theme..with thanks to Piara and Zacia at Kick It Out www.kickitout.org who work diligently towards kicking racism out of football…and by the way the Asian angle is to highlight the current lack of any Asian players in any of the professional flights….albeit three up-coming youngsters are highlighted on the kick it out site..check it out..one a budding female and one who has already played at u-16 level for England!

—————————————————————————-
On Conkering Racism In The Playgeround!

it’s not just football friends oh no
that suffers in this style
they’ve banned the sport we loved to play
is racism to blame I say
how can our schools just take away
our conkers?

and banish now like leaves from trees
on Autumn’s concrete floor
the right to glorious chestnut times
more dangerous than mountain climbs
i had to put it into rhyme
it’s bonkers

more violent they now proclaim
than derbies or the like
now ended after endless years
like six-ers that we lost in tears
our youthful dreams we lost our fears
in rompers*

no longer in the schoolyards
these conquered implements
now driven from the cycle shed
they turn a deeper shade of red
is liberty and freedom dead
i really think its bonkers

gone with the summer gone for good
gone with our childhood days
no drying them – no soaking well
no trying to hide the vinegar smell
no heating them no one to tell
but conkers

they’ve taken it away now
the danger risk and more
of string in eyes or stinging thighs
of locker-rooms comparing size
of boy-ish-girlish fiendish cries
when smashed ones go astray
in Yonkers***

and only rebels will persist
as rebels always will
without permission from their mums **
or letter-writing forging chums
like people who tattoo their thumbs
they’re bonkers

this game of conkers we all love
now banned in every town
you ask me of me and I reply
that underneath I wonder why
and just like Ali G I cry

IS IT BECAUSE THEY’RE BROWN?

© crispin t – sept 02

since writiIng this..i felt compelled to reply ot William Shakespeare’s guest book repost-entry…is he stil living in the Middle Ages..yes sadly methinks!

Dear Willie Le Shake(Pah!),Clik (bien- venue) and All Football Poets..

O yes that ol’ chestnut you might say…but……….
as football poets and in Stu’s case teacher …in a month where kicking racism from football and all sport is prominent..we are contacting you with regard to the recent banning of ‘playing conkers’ from the play-ground.We are also horrified by the introduction NATIONALLY of “written permission from parents or guardians being required.. to play conkers at school “..
We have to ask…what are your feelings? Is this racism gone mad? What next?.Is football with a tennis ball ok in playgrounds.. because the ball is now white and no longer brown?.Can anyone re-assure our dedicated society that our world is still a safe place to play in .A place to join together (with a gentle vibe of course) and beat the living daylights out of our classmate’s chestnut, with love…..it’s an outlet surely?
sincerely – Norman Le Conkerere

CTM UK-Celtic Traditional Music
Stroud England
Tel (0)1453 757376
www.ctmuk.com

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