The Master’s Crisp-less Tale
And as it grew closer to Crisp-less.. the crowds did gather before the Master of the Verse … in a place just offeth the M5eth where artists, poets and quite weird soccer writers do liveth in abundenth… and there they did stand in designer Barbour jackets & Range Rovers alongside woolly- hatted and yoghurt-woven bicyclist […]
what kind of game is this…in difficult times & places
(in defence of Desailly,Le Saux and Petit etc; staying home ) what kind of game – is this we play when players have to stand and say – this world and life mean so much more than football in an air of war or in a time – where hope and fear run parallel – […]
Toys for the Boys
Well I don’t know what to say – it seems a bit shallow to talk football when all this is going on, but operating on the assumption that “What do they know about international politics who only international politics know”, we’ll talk some football. My latest view from the bench comes on the back of […]
Do We Need A National Stadium/ Another Wembley & Where?
Hi -re the poem that follows this…………. i’m sitting here on a deserted and beautiful beach here in Pefkos on Rhodes,Greece having- alone – just watched the sun spectacularly and majestically set as it will have done every ‘night’ for millions and millions of years….here it performs this nightly miracle to empty houses.. regularly..(.in spite […]
where now..the Wembley dream is over
where now the dream is long over and gone and your tunnel stands empty while echoes ring on? when you ask me a place where-in legends were made i willl show you where none but the greatest have played from the back streets of Bolton to old London town the joys and the sorrows the […]
autumn on your ‘ead my son
today i forgot that autumn was arriving and then under a tree at waitrose it suddenly hit me a conker on my head
with love (and nothing to do with football)
with love (and nothing to do with football) with love with love – we will still pull through with love – if this is all we do with love – when it’s beyond control with love – from in your heart and soul with love – when they don’t understand with love – we will […]
WELCOME TO CRISPIN’S CORNER
more than a flag in some corner to dance with whenever you score more than a place where the clever ‘time-waste’ when they’re trying to hang on for a draw more of a place to put over your thoughts like some cross that is destined for goal a place to compose – be it rhyme […]
NOW THEY’RE TURNING FOOTBALL INTO WINE
oh sweet F.A desert us not – the tables they have turned within the hallowed temples of evr’y gound we’ve spurned they’ve turned our one-time people’s game of football into wine with crap designer labels at twelve pounds ninety-nine you’d pay much less and get much more from down your local superstore but why should […]
Live Reviews & News – September 2001
OUT TO LUNCH with the FOOTBALL POETS LIVE! August 25th at – 2001 A Football Oddity – Alternative World Cup, Thorncombe, Dorset. Hosted by the Easton Cowboys and Thorncombe FC the second Alternative World Cup is anbout bringIng people together through football, music (AND POETRY!) by socialising without isolating people by colour, sex age or […]
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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