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Flowers for Adrian

Christopher T. George

Thursday, September 9th, 2021

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 For Adrian Henri (1932-2000)

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 The worn flagstones of Mount Street
opposite the Liverpool Institute
— the head’s office, I remember
his cabinet full of silver trophies
as he turned me down as a new pupil;

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 23 years later, I sat on your settee
at 21 Mount Street, a cabinet with a dead
magpie in it, garlanded with paste jewelry
as I drank coffee with connie onnie
and listened to your rich Liverpool accent:

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 Adrian, pop artist, pop poet,
one of the triumvirate of Sixties
“Liverpool Poets” Henri, McGough, Patten;
you stayed while Roger and Brian decamped
to “The Smoke”–but you were the first to die,

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 debilitated after your stroke,
your big body wasted but still–
as in your poetry and your artwork,
“I Want To Paint–” as you painted
the football field of bouquets

6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 after the Hillsborough tragedy of ’89:
“Flowers for Liverpool.”
Yes! every Spring, every day,
it’s flowers for Adrian.

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Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/flowers-for-adrian/