An August Welcome …. and goodbye
Forgive me a little indulgence (see further below).
In August 2004, we welcome the following first time contributors to the Football Poets website (granted – some may be pseudonyms, there’s a certain familiarity about some of the styles!) :
Richard Vaughan, Sean Jamieson, Clive Robert, Laurie Hall, Paddy McMahon, Brendan O’Brien, Terry Kennedy, Samantha Brown, Kenneth Hoffman, Ray Kyte.
This month, I’ve selected :
Missed Penalty
Why won’t the ground open up
NOW
Bury me
Hide me
Right here
Leave me with the dust of my dreams
As the knives of the terrace
Pierce my shirt
And lie embedded between
The name and number
On the back.
© Paddy McMahon
My little indulgence?
Before today, I’d never heard of the 1980 Nobel Prize for Literature winner, Czeslaw Milosz.
But then I came across some of his poems (nothing whatsoever to do with football), but they moved me, with a passion.
And inspired the two following poems.
For anybody who may be interested;
Czeslaw Milosz was born in Lithuania, on 30th June 1911, into a Polish heritage.
He moved to Paris in 1931, then spent many years in Poland.
In 1960 he emigrated to the USA.
He died August 14th, 2004.
The following two poems were inspired by reading Czeslaw, but certainly don’t do justice to his genius .
Meaning
When I die
Will I find the meaning of life?
When I cross over to the other side
(No, not in that sense;
the Red Devils won’t get me, for I’ll always be a true Blue)
Will I be enlightened, as to the purpose of our existence?
Will there be a clarity, in what was a darkness of being?
Will there finally, be a comprehension of the new offside interpretation?
Will there be some sense, to the many years, of misguided loyalty
Of the devotion given over to, a bunch of under-achievers?
Will there be some grasp
As to why this fetid fixation
Could so move me and make me gasp?
Will it be proven, that this magnificent obsession
Was not a life wasted, or lost
But a mystical possession?
When I die
There’ll be another such as I?
note :
inspired by a poem called Meaning,
written by Czeslaw Milosz (1911 – 2004).
Jesus and football
He nailed it
Met the cross
And buried it
So that we might live
And breathe
And roar out his name
Blasphemy
Unbecoming
Of our Passion
note :
inspired by (but very different to),
a poem called ‘A Poem For The End Of The Century’ –
written by Czeslaw Milosz (1911 – 2004).
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!
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Crispin’s Corner
In Memoriam
Kick It Out & Christmas Truce
Latest Comments
24th April 2025 at 1:05 pm
Hey Denys..love this
“You may be a miner working down a pit.
You may be a rock star playing sold out gigs.
You may be a fireman putting out a blaze.
You may be an inmate chalking off the days. ”
Not just Dylan but maybe an unintentional nod to and shades of Ian Dury’s enigmatic ‘What A Waste’ rhythmic scanning..eg:
I could be the driver in an articulated lorry
I could be a poet I wouldn’t need to worry
I could be a teacher in a classroom full of scholars
I could be the sergeant in a squadron full of wallahs
What a waste
What a waste
Was lucky enough to meet and interview him twice.
Best wishes from Forest Green to Genoa C
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8th March 2025 at 2:34 pm
Thanks Crispin
I’ve been to FGR a couple of times in the past – great food! Barnet look like they have the NL sewn up for this season, but I wish you well for promotion next season.
Regards, Beth
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11th January 2025 at 8:13 am
TO ADD THIS TO THIS POEM’S COMMENT:WELCOME BACK DAVID MOYES!!!
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27th November 2024 at 5:55 am
‘You’re Supposed To Be At Home’ is an excellent and moving poem Denys.
You start off thinking it’s just about another oft-sung chant, one we personally heard a lot last season throughout our second relegation in a row here at Forest Green(FGR) ! I always love poems where you think they are saying one thing and then they suddenly pull you deeper to somewhere or something else else.
I’m currently helping in a local school for FGR in a voluntary capacity using football to help young students with reading. At an upcoming session we will tackle racism, just like we did in workshops at football schools and grounds when we first started this site 24 years ago. I’m gonna try and weave your poem into a session.
We’ve added it to the Anti- Racism/Kick It Out section under Crispin’s Corner.
Best C
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26th November 2024 at 1:59 pm
Great poem and great to see you back Wyn.
Don’t leave it so long next time my friend!
More please.
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13th September 2024 at 6:14 pm
Welcome to Football Poets Beth
Great evocative poem Beth….
More please !
Haiku always welcome.
Hope we (FGR) get to play you again soon
Best
Crispin
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26th July 2024 at 6:25 pm
Great poem Mike Bartram. Eddie was a legend, affectionately known in Liverpool as, “the first hooligan.” Even the hoolies were well dressed in those days. The amazing thing was he was only 26 when that picture was taken. He’d played for Everton youth team and was well known to the players. He never got arrested. They threw him out and he climbed back in, just in time for Derek Temples winner.
I used the picture of him being tackled to the ground on the front cover of my book, “Once Upon a rhyme in Football.” It’s worth looking on youtube and finding the re-enactment of the Wembley scene. Frank Skinner and Baddiel went around to Eddies home in the 1990’s and acted it out on the green outside. It’s hilarious, especially all the effort they put in to get Eddie sober enough to shoot the scene.
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10th July 2024 at 6:07 pm
Hi Crispin,
I don’t know if you’ve see the picture in social media today…
a picture of a teenage Lionel Messi cradling a baby in Africa as part of a photoshoot…. the family had won a lottery to have their baby pictured with him….
the photographer has just revealed that the baby is actually in fact Lamine Yamal!!!!
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26th May 2024 at 2:30 pm
Hi Denys…
Re Man City:
OK it was 20 years ago but Criag Wilson did write this and a few others on them back in 04/05.
BTW I’m more Forest Green Rover since 2014 (and Chelsea) these days . I drum and am a standing season ticket holder.
Best
Crispin
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