Where Minnows Dream & Fuse Box 3
FUSE BOX ISSUE 3 http://www.rattapallax.com/fusebox.htm
First up a big thank you and well done to Big Mouth organiser, perfomance football poet and Bristol icon Rosemary Dun for her wonderful Fuse Box 3 collection of performance poetry from poets around the globe..It features 5 football poets/about a dozen football poems and a great miix of loads of other good performance stuff …yours truly and Stuart plus more are there (how modest to give myself a mention ) ..check it out now at…. http://www.rattapallax.com/fusebox.htm
———————————————————————————
Where Minnows Dream
what is it about the third round of the cup?
more magic than the Secret Garden
when you find yourself in it
on that great day
and more than the respite
from lower region relegation struggles
or where you are
in relation to the big three
or whether you can stay in the league at all
no – it’s deeper
and though you can’t nail it
you feel it
inside
every time
feel it at Telford
feel it at Scarborough –
feel it at Watford
feel it at Arsenal
and just to ice it
a new year sprinkle of snow
like fairy dust
on days like this
where minnows dream
and nine or ninety – who will not feel
this is it
your year
your name on the trophy
your time to fantasize..
and scouring the games – those impossible pairings
the cup throws up .
it’s hearts in mouth time
of lambs to the slaughter or lions to the humbling
and striving from the heart
nothing to lose – nothing to fear
when you’re out of your league
with faces painted
it’s david and goliath meets school- band v Westlife
and who’s to say
this might just be your day
but tell me friend
whose neutral heart cannot but fail to leap
when Cheltenham take the lead at Fulham
with leagues between them –
or eyes strain at Kidderminster
when smoke from passing steam-trains
wafts over like fifties mists or war pea-soupers?
or Yeovil where twenty victims fell before
down Huish’s long gone and dreaded slope
or dodgy goals that did or didn’t cross that line?
and then all too soon it’s over..
no non- league team in the final
no Man United at home
no mega pay-day or trip to Anfield
not this year anyway
but hey
you know in your heart
you really need to concentrate on the league
(and staying in it)
anyway
but still – above it all..
isn’t it just the way
that always
always
no sadder sight to see
than one more
hand carved in love
and now discarded
cardboard
silver-paper
fa cup
lying trampled
in the rain
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
Crispin Thomas
25th January 2023
joe morris
23rd January 2023
Denys E. W. Jones
23rd January 2023
joe morris
14th January 2023
joe morris
8th January 2023
kevin raymond
7th January 2023
joe morris
6th January 2023
Crispin Thomas
6th January 2023
kevin raymond
5th January 2023
kevin raymond
4th January 2023
Crispin’s Corner
In Memoriam
Kick It Out & Christmas Truce
Latest Comments
5th December 2022 at 8:11 pm
Stuart, you are not alone, in your dichotomy of doubt
but without dissention
you stand alone
in hogging our attention!
See in context
16th November 2022 at 11:04 am
[Football on soiled turf]
This is a wonderful phrase which I shall be using from now on!
See in context
15th November 2022 at 3:54 pm
Well said Crispin. One of the reasons for The Ball 2022/23 is exactly this – that FIFA need to know. The Ball is essentially a petition to FIFA to honour their commitments to the UN Sports for Climate Action Framework. They signed up; they should act. The Qatar tournament takes the World Cup in the opposite direction to that commitment. And 2026 looks like it’ll be even worse.
See in context
8th November 2022 at 2:06 pm
Hi Guys
Re ‘Lets Boycott Qatar ‘ poem
You probably hate me banging on..and problably know (like me) that my/your not watching the World Cup in Qatar will make no difference.
Of course it won’t. That’s not the point.
OK someone might possibly eventually publish a minimal drop in terrestrial TV viewer numbers, but I fear that is unlikely.
But please above all, do go on writing poems about the World Cup, as/you we have always done. I hate to think a poem or two of mine might l make you feel bad about comenting on a game or country …or that I’ve put you all off about wanting to contribute.
So we’d love to hear from you and read your thoughts and observations, as ever on what’s going on.
Some of us have been here since Football Poets website birth/inception for the Euros 2000 ….
All my best wishes
Crispin
See in context
18th October 2022 at 10:06 am
Shoot! (Something we’ve also been screaming in vain at our team all season !)
Great memories Joe . Before Shoot, it was Roy of the Rovers comic too, dropping through my letterbox.
Anxiously waiting each week to see if they survived in the mexcian jungle after an ambush..or a pre-season earthquake!
See in context
3rd October 2022 at 8:32 pm
Thanks for the kind words Sharon. Yes, it was a shame with Billy Shako, but with five subs now being allowed, he might yet make it off the bench. Even if it’s just a cameo to close out a poem.
See in context
2nd October 2022 at 1:49 pm
John, your new book is an absolute delight and more please. It’s a shame ‘Swapping Shirts With Shakespeare’ never made it off the bench, but quality football poets light up the writing fields like Roman candles. Go well.
See in context
4th September 2022 at 12:42 pm
Great memories Greg. Took me right back.
Today I stand on a small terrace in the hills where I live watching Forest Green Rovers in L1, and keep up with Chelsea on highlights. It’s a far cry and a world away from those times when I lived as a child within walking distance of ‘The Bridge’ – just off the Ifield Road, which led to Fulham Road. The Blues were rubbish for so long, but we loved them and somehow we stayed in the old First Division for so many seasons. And of course we got to see Greavesie at his impudent best, scoring goals for fun. Mad unpredictable games where we’d score 4 and let in five.
The looming floodlights in the dark and mist on magic night games. The big games when the ground heaved.
I don’t think we ever realized how magical and incredible it was back then. The atmosphere and arriving there so early – like you said.. just to make sure you got in. Back when Bovril, tea and cake and roasted peanuts for sixpence a back were just about all on offer.
Good times.
See in context
4th September 2022 at 12:37 pm
see above
See in context
18th August 2022 at 10:20 am
To put it politely!
See in context