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
kevin halls
18th March 2024
Richard Williams
18th March 2024
joe morris
18th March 2024
Denys E. W. Jones
17th March 2024
joe morris
17th March 2024
Clik The Mouse
14th March 2024
joe morris
14th March 2024
joe morris
10th March 2024
joe morris
6th March 2024
Denys E. W. Jones
3rd March 2024
Crispin’s Corner
In Memoriam
Kick It Out & Christmas Truce
Latest Comments
19th March 2024 at 8:00 am
Hi Crispin. Chris Sutton on the radio has gone for a Chelsea v Coventry final. As we know anything can happen in the Cup, and I reckon we can go to the final.
We’re still in with a chance of the play offs too, so lots to go for.
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19th March 2024 at 7:41 am
Hey Kev
Let the masses drool over their odds on City v Unted Final, but who knows how pressure can hit.
Cov and Chels will be rightly labelled as having no chance..but hey …stranger things have happened..
so Chelsea v Coventry…that’s the Final for us!
Best
C
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29th January 2024 at 10:03 pm
Hi Crispin,
How are you doing mate? Yes, you’re probably right but hey football is all about emotion and passion and I just love writing about the game. I try to keep my poetry to a reasonable length but there’s so much to write about the game and its literature just lends itself naturally to poetry. Sometimes I just get completely carried and I do apologise for the length of my poetry but it’s a great thrill to be associated with Football Poets.
Cheers mate
Joe
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10th January 2024 at 7:52 pm
You’re right of course Joe but…..it’s actually more of a big welcome break for everyone who is not into Premier League ..I’m talking fans of EFL National League and below…..
Btw …is this actually your longest poem ever !?
Best
Crispin
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8th January 2024 at 4:45 pm
Thanks!
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8th January 2024 at 10:42 am
There’s something so evocative and nostalgic for football fans the world over, in ‘revisiting’ old lost grounds.
Occasionally some remnants remain, with perhaps part of a wall or part or a stand or thre shape of a terrace, but often they are only still there in faded images and in our heads..
Great stuff Graham
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4th January 2024 at 10:13 am
A great idea and well executed. Thanks Graham.
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19th November 2023 at 1:45 pm
Thanks Gacina, glad you liked it, and I have just posted a new one about our points deduction…
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7th November 2023 at 6:34 pm
Today B.B.C post on F.B was titled:Premier League reduced to 18 clubs? I really think it may be interesting to see if this would be Everton’s nightmare and this poem is well suited for this concern.If there would be more difficult battle to stay if there were 18 teams.Great poem and somehow true.
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6th November 2023 at 4:43 pm
Ashington FC have launched a £50,000 Crowdfunder appeal to meet the increased costs of winning promotion last season, to pay for urgent stadium improvements, travel costs and equipment
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