Football Poets | Stuart Butler | Activity https://footballpoets.org/members/stuart/activity/ Activity feed for Stuart Butler. Sun, 20 Sep 2026 18:43:09 +0100 https://buddypress.org/?v= en-GB 30 hourly 2 fcdccf949e023899ac432d6dd4be46d3 Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets https://footballpoets.org/poems/on-tenterhooks-in-mexico-and-rodborough/ Sat, 04 Jul 2026 10:46:43 +0100 Rodborough Fields
Mexico v England
The Prince Albert
Estadio Azteca

Hard to imagine these places conjoined
By anything other than a football match,
But the cochineal beetle from Mexico
Provided the dye for […]

]]> d16aee8e5126bda081303e158ed33905 Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets https://footballpoets.org/poems/the-2026-world-cup/ Wed, 10 Jun 2026 08:00:44 +0100 My mate says he’s going to boycott the World Cup:
He says he’s not going to watch any of the matches;
I said you have to set your alarm clock then,
Because sleeping through the night isn’t a boyco […]

]]> 9d576b3192769b843f9a8c0b24e42c57 Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets https://footballpoets.org/poems/dad/ Fri, 06 Feb 2026 11:47:33 +0000 Tackle Soccer This Way -Duncan Edwards
Was published on New Year’s Day 1958,
A month or so before the Munich Air Crash,
And seven or so weeks before Duncan’s death,
After his agonising struggle against the odd […]

]]> 3f751b1da95524422a0483b869165384 Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/from-stroud-to-swindon-for-a-football-match-brunel-all-the-way/ Fri, 13 Jun 2025 17:42:13 +0100 Start your journey at the Platform One Café,
Coffee and croissants and Katie and Rick,
3 tables, 6 chairs, a trunk, 15 railway puzzles
(Always one on the go for travellers with a brief encounter),

Sundry […]

]]> b44c2c7c4c5fecaa4a2d4b395730a58f Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/stratford-park-theatre-of-dreams/ Tue, 31 Oct 2023 16:21:25 +0000 I love Wednesday night’s walking football:
The gathering dusk of late October:
Floodlights lighting the way to goal,
While a moon rises high in the sky,
Illuminating childhood memories
Of yesteryear’s Aut […]

]]> 8957cd6c8fcb7d520f2ecdd9d70ac358 Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/happy-wednesdays/ Thu, 02 Feb 2023 13:13:20 +0000 It must have been 1965,
We were having a lunchtime kick-about.
‘It’s Good News Week’ by Hedgehoppers’ Anonymous
Was playing on someone’s transistor
Just behind the goal nearest the school,
Someone was puffi […]

]]> 28759cc7c058f0444b3ab503420e6447 Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/watching-brazil-haiku/ Sat, 26 Nov 2022 11:41:12 +0000 When watching Brazil

It’s just like watching Brazil.

Life’s like that sometimes.

]]> 2d5426b543dab060298ee889b13f36a5 Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/pilgrims-progress/ Fri, 25 Nov 2022 17:58:17 +0000 I was determined to boycott the World Cup,
And be like Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress:
Avoiding all seductive temptations,
And deceptions from the ‘beautiful game’ –
For the arguments against watch […]

]]> 83987081b3b877f5b5db1be306e4fd68 Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/when-saturday-comes-7/ Wed, 02 Nov 2022 12:30:58 +0000 That autumnal expedition to Brimscombe
Seems all a bit too good to be true:
Cycling past that spring alongside Bagpath,
Where an old Rodborough resident
Once slaked his thirst descending to Brimscombe,
Where […]

]]> 7d1d6937028e5a5456c4a935ea878cd2 Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/1960-61-close-season/ Tue, 12 Jul 2022 15:25:38 +0100 It was all so just so Just William perfect:
Egg sandwiches, crisps and lemonade
Tucked into your duffel bag,
Together with autograph book, green, red and black biros,
And Ian Allan trainspotter books […]

]]> de65090629829be069982fef8ebf5b67 Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/now-swindon-town-v-forest-green-rovers/ Mon, 25 Apr 2022 04:11:39 +0100 Now I’m not sure if there’s a debate here
About determinism and free will,
Or whether there’s just some sort of reflection
On 60 years spent going to the match,
That LS Lowry feeling of being lost in a crowd […]

]]> 415ff921fe625d68838174b034d91d9c Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/good-afternoons/ Wed, 12 Jan 2022 19:47:31 +0000 I felt as though I were in a poem:
‘Afternoons’ by Philip Larkin –
I was off to sheltered accommodation
To see my mother-in-law (91),
Wishing a ‘Good afternoon’ to residents
Out for their slow afternoon […]

]]> a0e946c1286284ba146bf9c71ec8fb3b Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/get-me-to-the-match-on-time/ Sun, 10 Oct 2021 09:14:59 +0100 The day started well enough: a walk to town
In the soft light of soft autumnal sunshine,
Ridge and furrow with kine in the fields;
Drunken Swindon fans trying to walk straight,
Whilst Lord John bantering with […]

]]> 41831cfafed196c6162f8889e9ac9fd0 Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/stroud-strollers-the-sun-shines-on-the-righteous/ Sat, 02 Oct 2021 17:19:58 +0100 When I was a kid, I lived for football.
Kicking a ball against a wall,
Playing in the road, using street names as goal posts,
Playing ‘Five and In’,
Practising and practising and practising,
Until it got too […]

]]> 946b194ce2f91050113eb0c2b6338378 Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/rough-musick/ Sat, 17 Jul 2021 13:38:59 +0100 Ye Prologue:
There’s an old radical tradition
Of beating pots and pans in the street,
Making a public din
(Rather than a private dinner),
Ringing bells, banging pans, blowing horns,
With domestic utensils u […]

]]> 0f07c0e00ef5c2257a657c2a11afeaee Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/its-coming-home-2/ Sun, 04 Jul 2021 10:21:05 +0100 When the working class was first given the vote,
The Home Secretary said:
‘We must educate our masters’;

The result was the Education Act,
Which resulted in elementary schools,
Throughout the cities, tow […]

]]> d8663098fe4da7dea3cb43871642a5ed Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/come-on-england-revisited/ Thu, 01 Jul 2021 20:36:31 +0100 It’s possible to shout that in umpteen different languages
And still mean it.
‘Fee, Fie, Fo, Fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman’
And what does that smell like?
It smells of Prehistoric Beaker Folk from […]

]]> 8d98220397707bedb73201fab3494412 Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/st-george-2021/ Thu, 01 Jul 2021 20:24:14 +0100 Buy George, bye George, by George,
It’s my jubilee too this year,
Fifty years of hopes and fears,
And while you couldn’t call my life
A total exercise in active citizenship,
You couldn’t call it total subje […]

]]> 291169e15da1336c6dfb3ecb914beb88 Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/get-your-book-out/ Wed, 23 Jun 2021 15:55:01 +0100 At the end of the day
There are no easy games at this level
And two-nil is a dangerous lead
When It’s a game of two halves
But goals win games
And it’s a good touch for a big man
When parking the bus […]

]]> 5d945a83d250e2e53c7e4c69c1777275 Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/memories-are-made-of-this-2/ Tue, 15 Jun 2021 09:05:30 +0100 Remember when the Likely Lads
Wanted to avoid the final score?
Well, this was the exact opposite:
A twenty first century digital version
Where we expect constant updates and news.

But don’t get t […]

]]> 62b6eecbcef58c3e5fe5cf140776b5bb Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/turkey-v-italy-haiku/ Mon, 14 Jun 2021 08:57:26 +0100 In Perpetua

Mobile? Strange paradox

Immobile moves

]]> cc5a39eaa5e4c079e8fde5b42f9793bb Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/rodborough-robin-trail-it-came-upon-a-midnight-clear/ Thu, 03 Dec 2020 13:10:07 +0000 It came upon a midnight clear, 
That glorious song of old, 
When angels bent down to the earth, 
And changed machine guns into harps,  
And turned leaden bullets into golden carols 
That drifted across no m […]

]]> cda46cd5c82f58b0671e22fff223cf73 Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/christmas-past-and-present-again/ Tue, 17 Dec 2019 11:05:38 +0000 It was the perfect present,
Charles Buchan’s Football Monthly Annual,
A book that took me instantly back
To a brown linoleum floor
And a hot fire cold room winter,
Studying a dog eared package
Of 5 year o […]

]]> bd1ffb62ecd45237fad7dd644392ce4f Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/christmas-eve-revisited/ Mon, 16 Dec 2019 12:31:30 +0000 You called on Christmas Eve afternoon,
Carrying an unwrapped parcel,
A gift brought from memory lane:
David Dangerfield’s dad’s football boots,
Slightly battered but proud and dubbined,
Though still sme […]

]]> ca771460822a56df254ab573cb1371d8 Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/for-john-summerbee-2/ Wed, 15 May 2019 10:49:38 +0100 Summerbees

I knew of Mick and I knew of Nick,
But I didn’t know of your existence,
Until early one morning on the number 46 bus,
When I was reading a Swindon Town programme.

It was back in 1992,
And y […]

]]> b8b594d39cc35acc68d256501e3479cb Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/football-railway-time/ Thu, 11 Apr 2019 17:13:44 +0100 Do you remember that lazy afternoon
Back in August 1958?
Well, I bloody well do mate.
We were sitting on the bunker
At the end of platform four,
Just by the giant semaphore signal,
When 5050 The Earl of St […]

]]> 805a91c25712191a79540341a4d1b52f Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/david-dangerfields-dads-boots/ Tue, 05 Feb 2019 18:52:04 +0000 You called on Christmas Eve afternoon,
Carrying an unwrapped parcel,
A gift brought from memory lane:
David Dangerfield’s dad’s football boots,
Slightly battered but proud and dubbinned,
Though still sme […]

]]> 8e064924e8d90356d7062f1c112526de Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/it-came-upon-a-midnight-clear-2/ Thu, 27 Dec 2018 16:51:44 +0000 It came upon a midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
When angels bent down to the earth,
And changed machine guns into harps,
And turned leaden bullets into golden carols
That drifted across no man’s l […]

]]> 4fb910b5984de63f0cacdd3fc61aaec2 Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/a-swindon-town-remembrance-pilgrimage/ Sun, 11 Nov 2018 10:06:57 +0000 We must have numbered a football team,
Umbrellas unfurled at the cenotaph,
Where we spoke of Walter Tull and Spurs,
And Swindon Town and Northampton Town
Footballers who fell in the Great War –
The rain p […]

]]> b8bfd5ac4205c5d6bdde6ee3b0450f3b Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/an-fgr-and-walter-tull-declamation/ Wed, 08 Aug 2018 14:02:25 +0100 Let the living answer the roll call of the dead:
Walter Tull of Spurs and Northampton Town KIA 1918;
And now the names from Forest Green:
Harry Watts was born in 1891 in Avening.
Harry joined the 6th Signal […]

]]> 9ac0076fdd19a068568a448bff0135ae Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/early-morning-hopeful-haiku/ Wed, 11 Jul 2018 10:25:59 +0100 The tension rises,
So does the thermometer,
And so will England.

]]> 89af3a8afdf77b76360fefc7b68c63db Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/footballs-coming-home-at-the-prince-albert/ Sun, 08 Jul 2018 12:55:03 +0100 I like visiting the Albert,
I like the way it commands a crossroads,

Welcoming all cardinal points of the compass,

Just like a traditional inn should,
I particularly like it when the football comes hom […]

]]> 0db20f451656ac9f52a97ee5b1d72a94 Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/on-charles-dickens-watching-england-win-on-pennos-haiku/ Wed, 04 Jul 2018 07:46:48 +0100 From the best of times
To the worst of times, and then!
The best time ever!

Gareth Southgate W1A Penno haiku

‘We own the process.’
I’ve no idea what that means –
But I’m glad we do.

]]> c6b09aa8081d74242735dc6836397c3b Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/cant-help-it-haiku/ Thu, 28 Jun 2018 10:52:26 +0100 Just like Marlene
When falling in love again,
Dietrich can’t help it …

I know I shouldn’t
I shouldn’t mention the VAR
But I can’t help it

]]> efcb3e9ef10170ac8bc4fd01e0a74d64 Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/kane-haiku/ Mon, 25 Jun 2018 13:17:28 +0100 Kane proves he’s able,
Not the brother of Abel;
But still merciless

]]> 4a30e8732a3431246a3f6ca19a6c91a6 Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/another-way-to-moscow-haiku/ Sat, 23 Jun 2018 12:17:20 +0100 from Another Way
to a Midnight in Moscow
by the Quorner flag

]]> 6429c191eb76215c788bb7c07c18a1af Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/the-best-goal-i-ever-scored/ Wed, 14 Feb 2018 13:25:34 +0000 It must have been 1965,
We were having a lunchtime kick-about.
‘It’s Good News Week’ by Hedgehoppers’ Anonymous
Was playing on someone’s transistor
Just behind the goal nearest the school,
Phil Vine was puffi […]

]]> f2e2aef6047eb890ddabdf60a35e4f80 Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/why-i-must-support-swindon-town-at-forest-green/ Wed, 20 Sep 2017 20:50:30 +0100 Now I’m not sure if there’s a debate here
About determinism and free will,
Or whether there’s just some sort of reflection
On 50 years spent going to the match,
That LS Lowry feeling of being lost in a crowd […]

]]> c1ae33d24d492e09f2aed5a9c479f512 Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/the-soul-of-forest-green/ Tue, 25 Jul 2017 08:38:14 +0100 I went searching for the soul of Forest Green,
Wandering intuitively, ad hoc
Inferentially, without any
A priori knowledge or insight:
It was a tabula rasa wander.

Northfields Road smacked of enclosed […]

]]> b74bb2cdd5546af1474a72af4f246621 Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/keats-moore-likely-ladsbaudrillard-crownsceptre/ Mon, 01 Aug 2016 11:28:10 +0100 Buddleia in broad gauge bloom down on Stroud station,
Crazy golf flags out at the Brunel Goods Shed,
As I lazily read the Stroud News on the train to London,
Until I came across Rodda Thomas of Crown and […]

]]> 5ceacc0e554592ffca962d7ed0b88502 Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/the-sea-is-calm-tonight/ Thu, 05 May 2016 23:00:00 +0100 The sea is calm tonight.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to […]

]]> 9ce4684e7dee71f26c7828f448a40b1f Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/swapping-shirts-with-shakespeare-dover-v-forest-green/ Tue, 03 May 2016 23:00:00 +0100 Enter Edgar, King Lear, Jon Parkin, Ye Beast, Dale Vince as Duke of Frocester, Scotty Bartlett and various morris dancers as footballers

Scene ; The white cliffs of Dover

‘Come on, sir; here’s the place: stand s […]

]]> 9a757490b70c70689e1b12e22fe6bcd5 Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/swapping-shirts-with-shakespeare-2/ Thu, 21 Apr 2016 23:00:00 +0100 Our revels are starting – the game’s to be won,
Tis time to swap shirts before the day’s run,
I swap mine with Shakespeare, with a poem sublime,
Tis all about football, in memory’s rhyme:

‘Sphere! Leather sphere! […]

]]> f4e96ad6bae0263e16594b5d700b5a8c Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/refugees-welcome/ Sun, 13 Sep 2015 23:00:00 +0100 ‘Referee!

You can see what’s going on!

Don’t look the other way!

You know the history of migration and colonialism!

Remember when Prince Rupert sailed to Barbados,

To keep the islands Royalist after his defea […]

]]> 325ac1a2a2aedce3f305ee64e07a1724 Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/fgr-vs-bristol-rovers/ Mon, 27 Apr 2015 23:00:00 +0100 Not Sherwood FOREST

Nor Lincoln GREEN,

But FOREST GREEN;

Not Robin Hood and Little John,

But Dale Vince and David Drew;

Not outlaws and poachers,

But left-wingers and goal poachers;

Not the pollution of […]

]]> 352f78119b79b834f373e245ffec9ebd Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/coyfgr-forest-green-v-dover-athletic/ Sun, 26 Apr 2015 23:00:00 +0100 My seat was down the front, right by the pitch,

With a view right out to open fields, new leaf trees,

Scudding clouds, a grand sky horizon, and two billboards

That tried to send their message down to the New […]

]]> 36b852c6f3bb47818ff2b6cbee9a9d34 Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/forest-green-rovers-and-ww1/ Thu, 11 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000 Forest Green was, as historian Tim Barnard comments:

‘A staunchly Non Conformist village,

made up of Baptists and Congregationalists’ –

Although the club was based at a pub,

‘The Jovial Forester … Lower F […]

]]> 64a156faa5dba2c6613a949c848bf89e Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/jack-russell-and-edward-hogg/ Sat, 29 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0000 Immaculate in spotless cricket whites,
Keeping wicket on the village green,
Up past Slad’s crossroad war memorial,
Betwixt Purgatory and Paradise,
To where 7323 Private Edward Hogg’s name
(7th Battalion, Glo […]

]]> e133a165f72c5b831302d5b5e36dbea0 Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/football-in-the-trenches-thankfully-revisited/ Mon, 17 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0000 When War broke out, the British public cried
“We’ll be in Berlin by Christmas”. But
By Christmas hundreds of thousands had died,
As Mons, The Marne, Ypres and Messine cut
Down the youth of Europe, while Fland […]

]]> 5cdfcca7cb639df65815af7bbb8d23ad Stuart Butler published a poem on the site Football Poets http://footballpoets.org/poems/the-sainsburys-advertisement/ Mon, 17 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0000 It’s a bit Herbert Marcuse,

A bit One Dimensional Man:

A unification of opposites,

A harmonisation of contradictions,

Where liberal-democratic capitalism

Gives that tantalising illusion of freedom,

Whilst […]

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