Book Project
It may interest you to know, that we are working towards publishing our own book of Football Poems. The book is to be entitled “Swapping Shirts With Shakespeare”. It will feature 11 poets from this website, including : Stuart Butler, Crispin Thomas, Sharon Marshall, Louise Ann Lacey, Richie Hession, Michael (SoonerGooner) Adubato, Clik the mouse, […]
Part of It All
PART OF IT ALL (at the heart of football) well it’s starting to get pretty late now it’s getting real late in the year we might as well wait til next season my friend when the heart becomes hopeful and clear and lately i’m thinking how fickle it it is and this time we surely […]
THE WALTER TULL MEMORIAL
On the Friday night, I went to a Mods’ reunion, Where Zoot Money sang “Barefootin”, The ideal preparation for the next day’s journey To commemorate the life of a man Whose childhood would have been similarly unshod. Part of my railway journey followed the railway lines He would have taken after taking all that racial […]
Football Poets team by rote
the ‘net; attracting like a spiders web enthusiastic scribblers praising dribblers and now with tomes in mind to put poems in bind to catch footballers between the sheets perhaps emulate the success of the The Streets so, a minder, for the net; SoonerGooner gunner be guardian who so, for wing back, centre back, hard back […]
FREE Football Poetry Rap & Percussion Workshop 10-15 yrs @ Stroud Fringe Festival
FREE Football Poetry Rap & Percussion Workshop 10-15 yrs @ Stroud Fringe Festival THIS WEEKEND!..OUT OF EXILE ! FREE Football Poetry Rap & Percussion Workshop -for 10-15 yrs with Crispin and Paul Southchott of The Foootbal Poets & Jeff The Fuse of Out To Lunch…… SAT 13TH SEPT 1PM-2PM The Space,Lansdown.STROUD + FREE GIG with […]
FA Cup minnows
They all start off dreaming Then comes the collective screaming : Teams, from every corner of the land Try their very best, whether praised or panned; And for all these clubs, their FA Cup dreams Start from unlikely places, wherever the draw deems And there were certainly some very unusual names That we could pick […]
Walter Tull and Family History
It was a typically dank Remembrance Day, When I biked out to Lydiard Millicent, Through Wiltshire lanes and sodden yellow leaves; I went to see Mr. Arthur Tull, a relation of my mum’s, Who had a family tree going back, he reckoned, To the 18th century seed drill Tull, good old Jethro. We didn’t discuss […]
new season on it’s way!
… and i’ll miss the start! Family holiday in France. I’ll not offer any predictions for the season, but I proffer the gift of Hindsight and the glory of Triumph Hindsight it’s only at the back-end of the season that we’ll really see the front-runners; rewind foresight here and now, might just crystalise the Gunners? […]
Where Have All The Good Players Gone?(Re-visited)
now they say if you recall the sixties you probably weren’t even there but i can still see it as clear as the day all those flowers and dreams in your hair – from the first of the CND marches to football games muddy and free from angry young beatniks in cafes to those idols […]
what now..with becks and zola gone?
what now with ‘becks’ to spain and zola too – from chelsea’s hallowed turf long gone who now to steer banana blasts past walls of steel as if they were not there who now to jink and weave past lunging feet like butterflies on buddleah or kingfishers dancing with river-flies on lotus flowers who now […]
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
John Gilbert Ellis
28th November 2024
joe morris
26th November 2024
Denys E. W. Jones
26th November 2024
Gacina Bozidar
26th November 2024
Wynn Wheldon
26th November 2024
joe morris
17th November 2024
Crispin Thomas
17th November 2024
kevin halls
10th November 2024
joe morris
10th November 2024
Clik The Mouse
10th November 2024
Crispin’s Corner
In Memoriam
Kick It Out & Christmas Truce
Latest Comments
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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29th April 2024 at 2:47 pm
Hi Denys,
Yes Richard Williams you’re a brilliant wordsmith, my friend. When I first saw your football poetry I thought it was the superb Guardian sports and music writer. I once had the honour of sitting next to Richard Williams while at the Independent on the sports desk. He writes about music and sport with immense knowledge and authority. I’ve read a couple of Richard’s books recently. Great writer rather like you Richard Williams the Pompey fan. Congratulations on promotion.
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28th April 2024 at 5:59 pm
Thanks Denys. Yes your replay poem was superb.
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26th April 2024 at 4:46 pm
Nice work, Joe. You were quick off the mark with that! Good one from Richard Williams too I see.
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25th April 2024 at 7:33 pm
Hi Denys,
Thanks mate. I’ll do it now.
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