|

Poems tagged ‘Liverpool’

Boxing Day battering for Magpies

Liverpool 4-0 Newcastle

Boxing Day footballs on
Rafa’s come to town
Yet the Toon army leave
With a great big whopping frown

Joselu spurned a good one
Lovren stepped up to the test
With a cracking half volley
He is simply the world’s best

Salah causes havoc in the box
An early second half sting
Penalty despatched cleanly
By the Reds Egyptian king

Trent lays a tap in for Shaqiri
But still no sign of fatigue
A fourth headed home by Fabinho
Liverpool, Liverpool, top of the League

number7
© emdad rahman

Be the first to leave a comment »

A day with orphans!

‘Who’ll hear the orphan’s cry?
‘They’re full of fear and dread’
We took our team on the road
To play football with them instead

Haji Eusuf orphanage, Chattak
We met 53 orphans that day
Zoinul and Moshahid had it all lined up
Rounding off with some sunset play

We took pictures and shared gifts
The orphans smiles put us to shame
We were itching to get on that pitch
To play the beautiful game

So gaffers Shaheed and Mehdi
List two orphan teams on a pad
Favourites Abdal, Waj, Abu, Yarimi
Bench stars Saif, Diya, Emdad

But we didn’t care for big names
The orphans were fighting fit
They ran and ran like Olympians
With us adding our little bit

I had to pull a trick for a goal
But then Yarimi beat the keeper
My shot came off the post
Diya pounced for the winner

With plenty game time left
It was time for a dirty prank
Poor Abdal smashed into the hoardings
Only way to stop that tank

With Abu pulling the strings
Saif was our brick wall
Ref Jay whistled to give us the win
Our orphans stood proud and tall

‘I’ve never seen them so happy,
‘I pray you’re all blessed from above’
A local expressed her feelings
On football spreading the love

At the Human Relief Foundation
Raisah’s match summary
Gobindogonj has played host to
The ‘best game in HRF history’

‘Who’ll hear the orphan’s cry?
‘They’re full of fear and dread’
We took our team on the road
To play football with them instead

number7
© emdad rahman

Be the first to leave a comment »

Reverie for Tommy Lawrence

can’t say won’t say too hot
and the trees are flashing a silver signal:
i am a red-eyed dove
the breeze a suggestive flailing hiss
my eyes heavy with yawning
where next is there anywhere left
to save
oh forgotten legend
oh gentleman
oh flying pig
and the world doesn’t matter any
more than it always has or hasn’t
while we’re slipping not even reluctantly
into a weight of life which we call death
becoming the compost for more and more
of this scratching that we say is tomorrow
but has always been and will always be
right now

Harry Owen
10 January 2018

Be the first to leave a comment »

Mr Liverpool – Ronnie Moran (1934-2017)

From the Reds golden age
Came a local lad called Ronnie
Hailed from nearby Crosby
Fondly nicknamed “Bugsy”

As an apprentice electrician
Ronnie signed for Don Welsh in 52
Played in Joe Fagan’s reserves
Liverpool through and through

Became a coach in sixty six
A new chapter with Shankly
Twice in the dugout as manager
Proudly led Liverpool out at Wembley

Forty four cups in the cupboard
There’s so many special dates
A fabled place in the Boot room
And recognition as one of the greats

Mr Liverpool, tea lady or physio
Bugsy served all the roles
Captain, coach, caretaker manager
Over 300 games, 16 goals

Home at Anfield for almost fifty years
Red to the core
He was the ultimate utility man
They’re not made like that anymore

number7
© Emdad Rahman

Be the first to leave a comment »

Espying Klopp

I must go down to the pub again
There’s a football match on Sky
And all I ask is a decent view
Of the screen, with the bar nearby
And the crowd’s heave
And the Kop’s roar
And the sudden surge down the wing
And the old familiar anthems sung
As only the Kop can sing.

I must go down to the pub again
For the pub on a winter’s day
Is a warm place and a good place
To while the hours away
And all I ask is a Liverpool match
And a decent Liverpool team
That will come to the game
With a dream of fame
That the folk on the Kop can dream.

1 Comment »

Heysel And The Darkest Hour

sometimes sitting there
in our little plastic seats 
in structures of steels and light
you look around today
and it’s easy to forget where we’ve come from
and the dark dark times along the way
 
but I know where I was that night
safe at home un-suspecting excited
and looking forward to a big game on the box
 
back then in the early 80’s
we didn’t get that much live football on terrestrial TV 
the odd England game  the Cup Final   the World Cup
but I remember rushing home to Stroud
from Coventry that evening
in bumper to bumper traffic that balmy late-May night
 
I was not alone in longing for a great European Final
Liverpool and Juventus
two of the best face to face
and sitting down with anticipation inside
I switched on BBC 1 like millions
just as  Wogan finished
 
suddenly  there was Jimmy Hill
ashen faced    apologetic tongue-tied and angry
the pundit panel   stunned and speechless
and Hill suggesting  the return of conscription 
as ugly scenes flared behind them
gruesome compelling    scary and brutal
these were scenes we had not seen before
LIVE on our screens
but we watched it all unfold in our living rooms
 
robbed of our rose-tinted spectacles
and nostalgic cloth-cap views of terracing et al
let’s not forget
that back then in Britain
in life and in football
those were hard and dangerous times
but in reality  week on week   we’d still be  there
herded from stations to grounds like animals
penned into ancient concrete areas like criminals
treated to a man
as working class losers and hooligans one and all

sometimes you even got pee’d on from behind
because once you got a good spot
no way would you wanna lose it
inadequate conditions inadequate toilets  devoid of security 
and pretty much left to our own devices  on the terraces
 
the mood was often violent and unsafe
the atmosphere  hostile and charged
racist chants and a tribal anger
you did your best to ignore 
but for some reason  love of the game or whatever
we coped with it
until that night   when it happened
as bodies piled up and  fans struggled
and both sides fought
before our very eyes
and disgusted and broken
together we searched for answers and solutions
in that darkest hour
 
when that wall collapsed
it signalled the end of 39 Italian lives and up to 600 injured
and all this live on our screens
I’ve never felt so ashamed to just being into football
and such sadness and tears
for the lives of those dead
 
it’s hard to erase such memories and hard to believe
they still played that strange  
and atmosphere-less game that night
pressure or fear of more reprisals no doubt
hard too to believe a crumbling ground  
about to be demolished
could play host to such a match
 
kicked out of the European competition
we now dominate for 5 years
British teams took the brunt
but nothing erases shame

and sometimes sitting in our plush hospitality areas
gazing at 52″ flat-screen plasmas and talking big
it’s easy to forget but wise to remember
where we’ve come from

the dark dark times along the way
and the night the lives of  39 Juventus fans were lost
may those times never return
may their souls forever rest in peace

Be the first to leave a comment »

Source: http://footballpoets.org/news/poem-tags/liverpool/page/6/