Football Poets

School Acrostics on Racism + The Site-More Reaction

1 FOOTBALL ACROSTIC POEMS ON RACISM from Germany
2 THE SITE FUTUTRE – MORE REACTIONS

FOOTBALL ACROSTIC POEMS ON RACISM
from Gloucester School. Germany

Football Acrostic Poem – Nadita Prevett

F rustrated fans shout and swear as tension rises
O ffensive abuse bellows out from people of all different sizes
O n every day blacks and whites should be treated the same way
T earful victims have a lot to say
B eing on the pitch is meant to be extremely fun
A ll the world must know that something great should be done
L oud screams echo out from the ignorant
L ove the game and not the pain

Football Acrostic Poem – Aimie McSeveney

F ighting is like a dark cloud covering the sky
O verhead the Racism drowns the stadium
O verhearing the threatened words of Racism
T he dark shadow of shame reigns over us.
B eat the racism
A drenaline melts the Racism
L ouder the crowd cheers the quicker the Racism disappears
L oud roars fill the air as Ronaldo kicks Racism out!

Football Acrostic Poem – Ben Keeney

F orget racism and cheer the game
O nly boo racism
O nly show racism the red card, never the yellow
T he red card will stop it, the yellow won’t
B low the whistle at racism
A ll attack racism and stop it
L et’s stop the racism and start the game
L ove the football hate the racism

Football Acrostic Poem – Harry Sharp

F rustration with racism
O ff with racism
O n with football
T hierry Henry ashamed
B oo racism off the pitch
A drenaline rising
L et down by the fans
L eave racism off forever

Football Acrostic Poem – Lucy Vaughan

F or a world that’s developed
O ur world is
O bviously offside
T his is for all you people who are excluded
B ecause of racism. Be the referee
A nd send racism away
L et racism disappear
L eave football forever

Football Acrostic Poem – Jessica Clarke

F uture of the world
O ffended by racists
O ffended all the time
T hreatened like a game lost
B eckham will help
A shamed of people
L end a hand
L et’s do something about it

Football Acrostic Poem – Chelsea Delve

F riction between players
O bviously give racism the red card
O ur world will be a better place
T error running through victims’ veins
B e helpful and stamp it out
A drenaline running through peoples’ bodies
L ose racism
L et’s just get on a play the game

Football Acrostic Poem – Hannah Strong

F rustrated fans blame the mixed race players
O ffended people watch the match
O ffside goes to the jealous
T hreatened on the pitch is as upsetting as someone dying
B eating racism out of the world will leave it a happier place
A nthems they play but whom to?
L iving a life of racism isn’t fair
L ucky humans don’t deserve it!

Football Acrostic Poem – Hollie Mitchell

F ighting for no reason
O ff for no reason
O ut for no reason
T en minutes of the game left
B eing bad for no reason
A lot of time gone for a reason
L aughed at for no reason
L ost the game for no reason

Football Acrostic Poem – Molly Harvey

F irst kick only happens once
O ffside, once again
O ut of the area like a prancing tiger
T rying to keep hold of the ball,
B ut it falls and it’s gone.
A ll areas of the pitch surrounded
L ying on the ground is painful but worth it
L oving the game but hating the racism!

Football Acrostic Poem – Ben Tomlinson

F ootball has it.
O ther sports do too.
O nly racists like it.
T oo many people hurt.
B oos from one end, racist chants from the other
A ll the supporters stand and shout.
L et’s do it today
L et’s kick it out of the park, we don’t want it!

Football Acrostic Poem – Ashley Rhodes

F ear threatens the fans
O ffended, hurt, some killed.
O uch, fans and straners wail in pain
T hump, the rage of fans.
B oos as a goal is scored
A ttack racism not fans
L ove the game but not the racism
L osing is what really starts the rage

Football Acrostic Poem – Danielle Rickman

F ootball is a favourite sport,
O thers think it’s not.
O ut goes racism, red card off it goes
T ake it out, say goodbye, hear the cheers.
B e like the referees, make the right decision,
A ll of us can help, even you and me.
L isten and feel how the players feel
L et it go, say goodbye and let it go to rest.

Football Acrostic Poem – Ellie McClafferty

F ootball is fantastic! Excitement and passion for the game.
O nly when the referee gives racism the red card.
O h how many players from Rooney to Ronaldo get threatened?
T ongues are useful only if you say a nice thing that won’t hurt.
B eckham walks out; cheers, anthems and boos fill his ears.
A ll is very cool for him. The whistle blows and the match starts.
L ook says one player, he’s blonde, ‘dumb blonde’ they shout
L ose racism. Today not tomorrow. Make the victims feel better.

Football Acrostic Poem – Ryan Lang

F is for finishing racism for good
O is for other people, sad as they can be
O is for offside, where racism should go
T is for trouble, that’s what it is
B is for bad, evil and disgusting
A is all the people in the whole wide world
L is for loser, all racists are
L is for loneliness, that’s what racism does

Football Acrostic Poem – Maria Hinson

F rustration over different skin colours
O ffence can happen if you are racist
O uch! Hurting people when you are angry
T orres scores a goal and people cheer
B ooing can offend when a goal is scored
A nthems are heard to support the team
L et’s shoot racism out of the world
L et’s give racism the red card

Football Acrostic Poem – Gabby Slater

F anatic fans losing control,
O ffside? No, he was on the verge of a goal!
O verly frustrated the fans shout and swear
T he players feel offended; racism is in the air
B ellowing boos, everyone’s scared,
A nthems louder, no extra time spared.
L urking in despair, the referee’s decision is hard
L urking no more, he rightly gives racism the red card!

Football Acrostic Poem – Ben Crowley

F or all the people and players in the world,
O ur world should kick racism away.
O ur world should show it the red card
T he game of football should have no racism.
B e careful what you say
A ll your players and team would be proud
L et’s get this violence out,
L et’s just play the game.

Football Acrostic Poem – Will Fyfe

F ooty is fun
O h no it’s not!
O uch! Racism hurts.
T o stop them we must
B ut give them no chance.
A red card to racism!
L et footy live
L et’s give racism the offside!

Football Acrostic Poem – Kieran Jones

F lares and guns, the fans are ready.
O utside the pitch, guns are loaded.
O ff pitch the ref awaits the surprises in store for him
T evez awaits the anger and boos
B oos surround the stadium with hatred and anger
A cross the pitch flares are thrown
L oud noises linger around the stadium
L ose racism, show the red card!

Football Acrostic Poem – Charlotte Hall

F anatics roaring, screaming, shouting but there is no racism
O ver the moon. The sight’s brilliant but there are bottle being thrown
O ff the pitch, injury after injury – all because of racism
T ogether at last. Everyone happy until they see Torres .
B rave players conquering the match with all the crowd yelling.
A drenalin rush but half way coins and food are thrown at the players.
L osing is the worst but winning is the best thing you could do.
L et’s erase the bad , let in the good and give racism the red card

© GS.Germany

The above acrostics are from Gloucester School in Germany near Hanover. if you are a school, do feel free to submit acrostic or haiku poems , but if you are submitting more than three or four or a whole class at a time – please check grammar and spelling and then copy and paste them into one poem and we will ensure they are featured . Also by putting the name of your school in the space provided on the “submit poem” page, they will also get saved and appear under the schools section. Thanks Gloucester School – some strong thoughts here on

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FOOTBALL POETS SITE FUTURE- MORE REACTION

“A month back we asked you ALL what you thought about this
‘unfunded-unchanged for 8 years’ site (!) and it’s future.
Well – we’re still here, un-funded, un-changed and still without our a webmaster Dave and limited to editorial input only. Some of YOUR reactions are printed below. if yuo owuld like to cmmment please send suggestions and feedback either by
Email E-mail us Editors -Football Poets :

on the NEW COMMENTS section at :
Football Poets on MySpace
or in the e-mail us link or in ‘Submit a poem’ section’

Thanks Crispin

MORE recent reactions received included this one from Paul Tubb ….

Hi Guys,
As a site I think the FootballPoets.org is adequate and does what it says on the tin so to speak…

I do think the British Library bookmarking it is a positive sign and I think it needs more attention from the literary hierarchy, e.g. The Poetry Library, The Poetry Society.

When I’m not composing poetry/song/general-gibberish, I am in fact an IT Contractor and was going to volunteer my services to the site when it was first requested… The problem is, firstly, My contract has ended and I am having difficulty getting new work so this is my number one concern at the moment and I have no time to concentrate on anything else at the moment, and secondly, I’m not sure if I have the appropriate software here at home.

Finally for the sake of the site, would it be worth contacting Roger McGough, John Hegley, Paul Cookson, Michael Rosen and many other established poets who have written many football poems… Especially Michael Rosen who can promote the site for schools in his role as Children’s Laureate….

Hope this helps.

Paul.

We have just asked Ian McMillan, wheo pwerformed here in stroud recently, to be a patron and are approaching John Hegley, John Cooper Clarke and Attila too..Michael Rosen is a great idea…
thanks Paul from Crispin )

COMMENTS

1 “This isn’t a ‘restricted to this site’ problem, it’s Poetry itself.
There is no big sale or desire for poetry across the board in any subject you like, and whenever ‘someone of weight’ wants a so-called football poem they commission it off some ‘big name’ mainstream poet (a la McGough) who rifles something off which passes for football poetry. Where are the openings for genuine football poets? The in house poets at football clubs are NOT football poets, they are mainstream poets who have had doors opened for them. Easy eh??

Who publishes football poetry? it is self published by the (brave few) football poets themselves (and you can count them on one hand) one of whom wrote a fabulous book of football poetry, and then was ‘rewarded’ with 3 years of hoaxing and heartbreak. One poet was subject to written abuse on this site from one of the occasional contributors. Jealousy must always rear its ugly little head.

So where does that leave Football Poetry? it you have a forum with rules etc you will need moderators, would people pay for upkeep? on what rules and regulations would it be run? and what about all the problems with past guestbooks? how would you control content?
For Football Poetry to be truly successful it needs successful Football Poets, not the ifs buts and maybes of swapping shirts with Shakespeare, or the constant tribalism of teams or mainstream poets in the guise of football poets….but who has the magic wand to change it? I dont know. Promoting it in the schools and football study centres is admirable but it hasnt changed things so far. The literary establishment remains stubbornly oblivious.

Perhaps Football Poetry is best left as it is here, it has a willing and regular audience, it is accessible ,and it is free. ”

Pogue Mahone

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2. “About the site, overall it is really good, but 10 thousand poems is perhaps too much. Ok so the Russians had a saying during WW2 that ‘quantity had a quality of its own’, but really how many of this site’s 10000 are any good? Some are good, some are brilliant but most are not. The problem is the really good poetry gets drowned out.

Stuart Butler no longer contributes so ‘Butlers Bench’ needs to change. Sorry Crispin but just using it to promote your myspace blog and workshops is not editorial input.

Clik hardly posts up these days and when he does it is minimal – again an overhaul is needed.

If all this site is to be is a “it’s mine and i will do what i like and i wont share” then fine keep it as it is. But you need to promote more fully your best poets, they are the true voices that need to be heard, there are no places out there in mainstream poet land for football poets, blunt but true, wasnt this site set up to change that???

Thus if it is to move forward and reflect a truly representative portion of the football poetry world it needs to move out the “its my ball and i’m not sharing” mode.

Thoughts????? Jeff Usher
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3. “This is the only site on the web, that I am aware off, that is exclusive to football poetry and I will say that it is managed and edited very fairly by all those involved with the site.
I have in the past, had a problem or two with the powers that be, but I was the one who had to grow up and accept the editors decisions to which particular poems of mine would suit this site.

I have posted my poetry on various Celtic websites & forums to a lot of mixed reviews, been rejected by the Club magazine and been given abuse on one particular Celtic forum but it does not stop me from writing and the Football Poets website allows me (most times) to express myself as a Celtic supporter and nothing else.

So I agree with Pogue Mahone with the quote; “Perhaps Football Poetry is best left as it is here, it has a willing and regular audience, it is accessible, and it is free.”

Writing football poetry for me is just a hobby, a hobby that I enjoy. It won’t make me rich or famous but content.”
D McDonagh

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EDITORIAL THOUGHTS…
This from Peter….

“The part about being an editor that I find the hardest is whether or not to include a poem that is not very good. Okay,
‘Chelsea Chelsea are the best,
They are better than all the the rest’
will probably be deleted , but at the same time I consider the site as vital in encouraging new poets to come on and give it a go. I’m sure the last thing we want is to be seen as elitist – having a clique (pardon the pun) means we set the agenda, whereas the democratic nature of the site is what I love about it. That is why it is often hard when a poor poem comes along to decide if it is a genuine effort or someone taking the mickey.

I suppose in the ideal world, you could have two forums –
side by side. One for everybody and one a registered forum to which only invited poets were given writing access.

As regards the sections, whatever you put in them is fine by me. I have no problems with the content. I know Crispin has been given a bit of stick – as we all have over the years – but if you put your head above the parapet, you’re going to get shot at. My only occasional gripe with the site is that perhaps Crispin
does react too quickly when a criticism rears its head. I know his remit
is to be “squeaky clean” (archived by The British Library,
and recommended by RIF (Reading Is Fundamental) Kick Into Reading, BBC, Five Live, National Literacy Trust, schools etc)
but just because one person objects to something, it doesn’t mean we have to act on it (particularly if the complainer does not include a valid email address)

The sections page is also useful for inspiring new poetry. You only have to publish a list of Christmas / Armistice / FA Cup poems and a load more flood in, which is a good thing.

Personally, I don’t think 10,000 is too much. If people like a poet, they can isolate his/her stuff and concentrate on that. There is an excellent word search engine too for anyone looking for poems on “Kilmarnock” or “Mendonca.” New poems may not last long on the home page, but you read the list of new poems and pick out the poets you like. PeterGoulding (Editor)
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5. CRISPIN’S REPLY TO COMMENTS…AND THOUGHTS ON FUTURE

Well what can i say? We try and we will improve, promise Sir/Miss!

ON BEING SLAGGED OFF I do get some crticism on this site.
“What kind of massive ego trip are you on Crispi baby?”
was a particular favourite. It’s annoying when you can’t reply to non-existent email adresses . It’s counter-balanced though by pleased schools and kids who do write a bit more as a result. Peter’s right I’m over sensitive. But I’m up-front so I have to take it.

ON ADVERTISING WORKSHOPS AND MY BOOK!
OK I do poetry workshops and I advertise my Football Poetry book.
Over the years we’ve asked for any football poets out-there to come on board to do workshops , or to be an editor with a section. There is still one free remember if you would like the opportunity and all the “perks” with it! So far in eight years of asking , the only up-take and involvement has been from Ted Smith Orr and Rosemary Dun plus locally : Adam H, Danny & Katie McCue, Stuart Butler ,Dennis Gould and Jeff Cloves. Nationally only Ted , Rosemary, Stuart and I have worked together and done ‘stuff ‘ at
places like Chelsea, Charlton, Northampton Town, libratries,schools , festivals and in prisons in Wales twice. (Wild!) More ‘get-up and read out loud poets ‘ needed (don’t you hate the phrase ‘performance-poets’).

ON BOOKS!
Advertising a book is something all writers do on the web to help them survive. It’s bit like hating a small band who hold up their £5 CD at gigs! I sell a few copies here and there. Believe me it doesn’t put me alongside John Terry and Ronaldo! The problem here is : I have a section which Dave created that I cannot change until someone comes in with a new interactively designed site. There were 3 editor sections initially set up in 2000 (!) and it’s stayed that way, like an old antiquated football ground . When Parry had to sadly stop being an editor due to studying commitments , (remember Parry’s Post?) it took me a few stressful and embarassing months just to locate Dave to get it’s title changed back to Butler’s Bench. Even though Stuart had far too many Head Teaching commitments to be able to go on editing.

ON NOT ENOUGH INPUT FROM EDITORS
Fine and true, but for for those who complain –
“Come and lend a hand if you think you’re good enough.. La La La!”

Stu allows me to use his section for themes and contributes when he can , alongside his hectic teaching role. Clik and Peter are in Ireland. Peter and Clik have families and busy jobs to look after. Technically, I can’t create complicated digital stuff yet. I’m learning. I set up the comparitively simple My Space site as a temporary thing for myself , and then turned it into a joint MySpace/ Crispin/Football Poets site, hence the name . Do check it out and comment there! It’s at :
Football Poets on MySpace

just scroll down to bottom of page right hand side.

Basically Peter, Clik and myself, do this for fun and for nothing. I’m up for grabs more because I promote myself : Bad Times,
But I get to write more and to highlight things : Good Times.
I like making people laugh. I take the mickey out of myself to try to inspire others. I’m nostalgic and anarchic but I try like many of you to write from the heart . This site isn’t about me. it’s your site.

ON FEATURING “TOP” OR “BETTER KNOWN POETS”
On the question of so called ‘top or better poets’ I understand the emotion but what’s that about exactly ? There are many great FOOTBALL POETS per se on this site, but who could compile a fair Top 10,40 or 100?

There are also only a handful of great PERFORMANCE
Poets (whatever that means) who contribute to the site . Notably Attila The Stockbroker and Albert Nyathi (Zimbabwe’s Premier Performance Poet and National Poetry Award Winner) who many of you may have seen at gigs or Womad. Paul Tubb (Ireland)
and Neal Zetter (London) both work in schools and libraries and festivals. Ted has organised festivals ,books and gigs in Croydon, Rosemary runs great Big Mouth Poetry gigs in Bristol. Stu, Dennis Gould, Adam Horovitz, Peter Wyton, Peter Tickner and Jeff Cloves (all Stroud) are all wonderful LIVE poets .There are also quite a few other who I know do loads of stuff out there , but we just haven’t connected yet.

SECTIONS
We always wanted individual poem-subject-theme sections :
“clubs, games, grounds, players, philosopy, nostalgia, Euros, World Cup, FA & Carling Cup, , Scottish Welsh and Irish Cup, European Leagues and Cups, Nationwide, The Championship, Non League, Homeless World Cup, Scottish, Welsh and Irish League, African Nations Cup, Racism , Womens’ Football, History and perhaps a section on ‘What the Romans did for us apart from roads, sanitation, taxes, baths and RomanCandel fireworks of course. I’d still love it. Individual sections too for each person to re-style or as they say today ‘re-pimp their profile’, f they want.
This would allow your own personal integrated site in your own colours, message board etc.. Every one would then have their own place, pic, bio, gigs, cds, books, in which they could publicise all their stuff., if they wanted . It may come.

FOOT(ball) NOTE
On top of it all , like you all, I have to juggle the editing , correcting, spam and virus prevention with keeping my own self-employed music business (CTM) together. Lastly (no sympathy please), my wife Jennie has also been very ill for the past five years, which has slowed down the pursuits of progress I guess and made it diffiicult at times just to keep the site going,. So big thanks to Clik and Pete especially and to Kevin, Ted, Rosemary, Stu , Adam, Mat and Damo for their support . But we keep on. Ever hopeful of promotion and avoiding relegation or even worse extinction. At least you can still stand up to wirite and perform at our site (ground!) Bottom line – I’m basically an old (Football) hippy poet who’s liteally been to 20 live games only in the last 8 years (honest). I spend al iot of itmes with three mates in thnakfully smoke-free pubs come rain or shine, with little hope of getting ticketsfor Finals and i go to games hundred of miles away when I can afford it, but that’s another poem .

As my good ol’ cockney mate Kevin ‘Chelsea’ Raymond would say…….Peace (and love) Crispin

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