That Match
With Christmas coming up, some people might want to write about the football in the trenches story – either for the first time, or again.
The story is in the archive section, if you are unacquainted with the tale/history.
That Match
They lay low in the mud
Dug in. Dog tired
Cold, wet, hungry and alone in their thousands
They listened to the thud, thud, thud
Of bullets biting, feasting
Each projectile
Stopping, only to top up the misery quotient.
Flesh, an easy target,
For it’s tunneling.
Blood, and mud, mixed evenly
Just ingredients
In this half baked notion of war.
The stench, from the trenches, rising
Up, through and beyond nostrils
Forming a celestial travelator
For the death march of dispirited souls, dipped,
In the anointment of inevitability.
The progeny, of those who had at least procreated
Should remember their forebears well.
Those, who had never tasted carnal knowledge,
Stiffened, all over,
In an orgy of tomb filling, womb emptying, carnage.
They were to leave no heirs, no one to grace the family name,
No one to visit their unmarked graves.
We, should remember them all.
We, should remember what man can do, to fellow man.
We, should remember too, what good mankind can do.
At Christmas, we celebrate the one day
When the body count resulted, in a nil-nil draw –
Save for those, mortally wounded, who could hold out no longer.
And on that day, goals were notched
And the only bullets fired, were those shots powered by limbs, stretched
In the middle ground, of No-Mans Land
A makeshift pitch
With no lines, no corner flags, no boundaries, no quarter given
With rifles for goalposts, triggering a target, for two teams,
Hell bent on killing each other, but on this day, peaceably so.
And the legacy lives on.
Armies now fill benches, instead of trenches
They bring every possible emotion, to a cauldron of ‘war’
And the manipulators, stir easily.
But the good in mankind, triumphs, even in defeat
And all winners poeticise, the right way to fight.
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
10th November 2024
joe morris
10th November 2024
Clik The Mouse
10th November 2024
Clik The Mouse
6th November 2024
Alex Saynor
6th November 2024
joe morris
29th October 2024
joe morris
17th October 2024
Denys E. W. Jones
16th October 2024
joe morris
11th October 2024
Mike Bartram
11th October 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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