Old Exercise Books and the Need to Listen
“So now I tell you not do to what I used to do,
And I think you always knew
That I used to do it too:
Writing the names of girls
(Where art thou, Pamela?)
And football players,
(But why Ken Skeen?)
And all the words to Yellow Submarine,
And names like The Small Faces and The Who
On my 4th form Latin vocab book,
Just as we’d all steal a look,
Watching the 5th form girls play tennis,
As we’d all sit, hot and listless,
(I suppose the case was accusative,
It certainly wasn’t live and let live),
So much better than Virgil and the ablative absolute,
With a teacher helpless like King Canute,
Before long waves of chalk
And all the hands of a slow moving clock,
While we wished the time away
Until Saturday
Came.”
But just to emphasise the need to listen in class rather than doodle – what if you missed the piece below? Then your education would be incomplete.
First they came for the gypsies
Then they came for the Jews
I stood and watched in ignorance
Cos I was free to choose
They rounded up the handicapped
And then turned on the gays
The smell of rotting corpses
Was in the air for days
I looked along our village street
Not a soul was out
We all ignored the carnage
We knew of it no doubt
I am not a Nazi
But I may as well have been
As human beings we have failed
And that is just obscene
These things will never leave us
We all turned a blind eye
We never lifted a finger to help
We all knew they would die
I’m ashamed to be a German
That’s easy now to say
But I can say with honesty
I think of them every day
Why did we do nothing?
I don’t know what we feared
Some of us objected
They just disappeared
I wish I’d died along with them
I then would have some peace
To have stood there and done nothing
It beggars all belief
I have to live in sorrow
With what and could have been
But I never lifted a finger to help
So I’m not a human being!!!
peace.
Notes:
This is obviously not a football poem. But on Saturday April the 9th the Romany people celebrate Roma Day. It will also be the very first time that they have been able to get attention of more than a few passing lines in the press about the number of Gypsies murdered in the death camps by the Nazi’s. We all think, and quite rightly so of the devastation to the Jewish, disabled and homosexual communities being almost destroyed, but few people care or dare to mention the fate of the Romany community. So there will be a commemeration fof Roma victims who died in the death camps in London tomorrow, Saturday at St James’s Church 197 Piccadilly at noon.
I’ve put this up cos you did a 60th Holocaust day poetry posting on the site and this is a belated poem related to that, the poem is seen through the eyes of a German villager who stood, watched and did nothing!!!
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
peace.
kev
(Just cleared out all me old exercise books from me mum’s – just kept two. Easy to knock school knowledge – but the above from Kevin shows how important education is.)
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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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joe morris
20th April 2024
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Latest Comments
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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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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