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Shankly Lives Forever

Mark Thomas

Sunday, October 19th, 2008

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 Years rolled back
Before our eyes
As if magically plucked
From heavenly skies
Grey cropped hair
And the Cagney strut
Pearls of wisdom
So succinctly put
For tonight we saw
Bill Shankly’s ghost
His invincible bastion
Was no empty boast
Glenbuck to Anfield
Goodbye to the coal
Yeats in the centre
Arthur Askey in goal?
Soon cups and titles
Quenching our thirst
Second was nothing
So he gave us first
Football’s great orator
Words cut like a knife
Red scarf held tightly
It’s somebody’s life
Fanatics too young
To remember those days
Now understand why
We lavish such praise

Notes

This poem was inspired by “The Shankly Show” (a one-man play about Bill Shankly which played for two weeks at The Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool) and it’s title by a famous old Kop banner.

“Since I’ve come to Anfield, I’ve drummed it into my players, time and again that they are privileged to play for you. And If they didnt believe me then, they do now.” Bill Shankly to the fans at St. George’s Hall at the FA Cup victory parade, May 1974.

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/shankly-lives-forever/