Football Poets

On Why I Won’t Be A Football Poet In Residence (Unless it’s Planet Earth FC)

¶ 1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 dear mister very big football club bloke
when i opened your letter i thought it a joke
and i with the deepest regret must decline
to dwell at your club like some partner in rhyme
but thank you again for the offer you sent
to be the club muse and to be resident

¶ 2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 it’s not just the money though bless you my son
it’s deeper than words like those rivers that run
It’s not about being a poet per se
or travelling to games both home and away
its more about keeping it general and sane
and trying to bring poetry back to the game
about giving people for better or worse
un-biased neutral and un-fettered verse
for isn’t the people’s game what it’s about
not tied to one club like a hook to some trout?

¶ 3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 and how could I thus as a true football poet
become one-team minded when deep down i know it
t’would cause a dilemna and that’s why it’s no
and this is one offer that i must let go
and however much i love team or my country
my life is like rubber like honey or bungee
and i must be open each day and each hour
like packets of crisps or the tiniest flower
and how can i ever make your ground a home
to pen samey verse about one club alone

¶ 4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 you can label me squiffy and high in the brow
you can call me pretentious it’s all true I vow
but my goal’s beyond any singled out team
and mine is a path that began with a dream
and may i add un-like most players today
who large it or drink it or drive it away
we poets go places where others can’t reach
like forest green rovers or out on some beach
and one thing alone will bring fear and bring friction
and this we all know as poetic restriction
the one-ness – the one-ness – but not for one team
the one-ness the one-ness- not part of some scheme.

¶ 5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 and i will stay here in my cottage so humble
and i will write poems and eat apple crumble
while off in the distance and over the field
a ground and some floodlights to soothen and heal
and i’ll have a nature boy’s love for the game
and gaze at The Lawn for yes that is it’s name
so high in the Cotswolds where stone supports beam
where sweet rolling hills meet a forest and green
a housing estate with some squirrels and foxes
and badgers and lovely green re-cycling boxes
and endless blue skies and people on bikes
who talk about yoga and paintings they like
about their fourth car and nowhere to park it
and how much they cherish the new farmer’s market
a Laurie Lee peach and a dream of a place
a Stuart Hall portrait of texture and taste

¶ 6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 and i will write poems of future and past
of games and of teams and of names that will last
of football itself and of how it began
or why we stay faithful from childhood to man
and i know its tragic and selfish and stuff
but why dont you do it if you’re soft enough?

¶ 7 Leave a comment on verse 7 0 but me i’ll remain like a train in a station
and i will continue to find inspiration
from nature and books from love and from life
and believe me your club will without me survive
and thank you again but i’m purely content
and i’ll be a poet.. .but not resident.

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