Psycho-Geographical Wizard of the Dribble
Train driver turned teacher (and still tutoring in schools after all these years) Stuart has played for Swindon Boys in football and rugby and played competitive football in the Swindon League.
A self confessed “wizard of the dribble, feint and body swerve”, he founded Stroud Football Poets with Dennis Gould in 1996 after trying to get Dennis to perform his football poems. Stuart was told to write his own first – which he did.The site itself launched in June 2000 when original web-master Dave Cockcroft , Stuart and Crispin entered their first few poems . The rest is history.
Since that Damascene moment, Stuart has also written a variety of plays about his locality, which have been recorded: the tramp poet W. H. Davies, the Spanish Civil War, Laurie Lee, the co-operative movement, and WW1 have all featured within his oeuvre.
Stuart is more of a psycho-geographical writer these days, and regularly leads performative history and literature in the landscape walks: his next one is a Weavers and Workhouse walk for the Stroud Fringe. He is also currently involved in the writing, direction and production of a film about the Chartists.
Following years of dedicated editorial work on page and stage since its inception, Stuart still plays an integral part, both as contributor and live performer with Football Poets. His most recent performances include in 2014 & 2015 the Football Poets acclaimed theatre/music/spoken word production: Trenchcoats for Goalposts ~ Christmas Truce 1914. This show is also being performed in Gloucestershire this Winter 2016.
He blogs regularly at A Guide to the Radical History of Stroud and the Five Valleys and has a new website called Radical Stroud.
Pic1:An extract from A Christmas Truce poem by Stuart appears in Nancy’s autobiography.(Bless!)
Pic 2: Stuart & Crispin Live @ Stroud Fringe.
Poems by Stuart Butler
- Stratford Park Theatre of Dreams
- Happy Wednesdays
- Watching Brazil Haiku
- Pilgrim’s Progress
- When Saturday Comes To Brimscombe
- 1960-61 Close Season
- Now ~ Swindon Town v Forest Green Rovers
- Good Afternoons
- Get Me To The Match on Time
- Stroud Strollers: Walking Football
- Rough Musick
- It’s Coming Home
- Come On England ~ Revisited
- St George 2021
- Get Your Book Out Ref
- Memories are Made of This
- Turkey v Italy haiku
- Rodborough Robin Trail ~ It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
- Christmas Past and Present Again
- Christmas Eve (Revisited)
- For John Summerbee
- Football Railway Time
- David Dangerfield’s Dad’s Boots
- It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
- A Swindon Town Remembrance Pilgrimage
- An FGR and Walter Tull Declamation
- Early morning hopeful haiku
- Football’s Coming Home at The Prince Albert
- On Charles Dickens watching England win on Pennos haiku
- On Germany Losing Two Haiku to Nil
- Kane haiku
- Another Way to Moscow haiku
- The Best Goal I Ever Scored
- Why I must support Swindon Town at Forest Green
- The Soul of Forest Green
- Keats Moore Likely Lads+Baudrillard @ Crown/Sceptre
- The Sea is Calm Tonight
- Swapping Shirts with Shakespeare: Dover v Forest Green
- Swapping Shirts with Shakespeare
- Refugees Welcome
- FGR vs Bristol Rovers
- COYFGR ~ Forest Green v Dover Athletic
- Forest Green Rovers and WW1
- Jack Russell and Edward Hogg
- The Sainsbury’s Advertisement
- Football In The Trenches (Thankfully Revisited)
- Live and Let Live
- The 1914 Truce in Context
- Swapping Shirts with Shakespeare World Cup Haiku
- Figuratively Speaking Haiku
- Christmas 1914
- Football on Robben Island haikus~revisited
- Shortwood United versus Port Vale
- Football Time: Second Half
- Christmas Eve
- Remembrance Day
- The Early 1950s: “Seen but not Heard”
- He Even Makes the Trains Run On Time
- Fascist Football Managers
- Walking away from the Game
- The Rovers
- Pythagoras and Dale Vince are Cool Haiku
- Octopus Haiku
- The End of Illusion
- England 1 Germany 4 Haiku
- England: From Bad to Worse Kick and Rush Haiku
- New England Coat of Arms Haiku
- “So Come On England” Haiku
- World Cup and Refugee Week, 14th-20th June: Haiku
- England v The U.S.A.
- FOOTBALL ON ROBBEN ISLAND HAIKUS
- Chris Waddle Paradox Haiku
- Nil Nil Haiku
- Haiku 9
- Haikus 7 and 8
- “Bloomin’ Football: A Football Pilgrim’s Progress
- World Cup Haikus 1- 6
- One World 2010
- The Usual
- Fulham versus Swindon Town
- On Being a Fan 1 and 2
- On Being a Football Pundit
- From the Pools to a Sea of Debt
- Another Year
- Why do we go even though we know it’s Rubbish?
- The Premiership
- Blue Remembered Quills
- No More Narcissi Anymore
- A Straight Line Through a Revolution
- The Past is a Different Country
- Crewe 0 Swindon 0 Haiku
- Swindon 2 Forest 1 Haiku
- Mr. Mclaren Haiku
- Rodborough Allotments
- Moving Sphere Haiku
- Trade Winds
- Steve Mclaren Freudian Haiku Moment
- Give us back Our Game Haiku
- Cup Final Tickets Haiku
- MEMORIES AND MYTHS
- Load more
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
Denys E. W. Jones
2nd October 2024
joe morris
2nd October 2024
Mike Bartram
30th September 2024
joe morris
26th September 2024
joe morris
19th September 2024
Clik The Mouse
18th September 2024
Clik The Mouse
18th September 2024
joe morris
16th September 2024
John Gilbert Ellis
12th September 2024
Beth Rogers
12th September 2024
Crispin’s Corner
In Memoriam
Kick It Out & Christmas Truce
Latest Comments
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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25th April 2024 at 1:56 pm
Thanks Joe,
you might like to write a poem yourself on the same subject…
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23rd April 2024 at 4:03 pm
Hi Denys
With you all the way on the abolition of FA Cup replays. What are they doing to the game?
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