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
- 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
- Alan Ball and his Dad
- Swindon DIv 2 to DIiv 1 Haiku
- Last Minute Goal Haiku
- Angerland
- Club or Country?
- Chelsea New Money Vegetables
- New £20 note and price of a footie ticket haiku
- The Copperfields are turned to Gold
- Jerusalem
- Atmosphere
- First Game Haiku
- David Beckham Evolution Haiku
- Transfer Cliche Haiku
- Christmas Past and Present
- Come Back Dad (Again)
- Football In The Trenches (revisited)
- Whatever Next? (Revisited)
- Swindon to Leeds Haiku
- Autumn
- Industrial Archaeology: My Birthday
- Hope and Reality Close-Season Haiku
- Street Sign Haiku
- World Cup Final Haiku Sent Off
- Power-cut Pennos Haiku
- 1.7.1916 and 1.7.2006 Haikus
- England vs Ecuador Early Morning Haikus
- England vs Ecuador Afternoon Haiku
- Dutch Haiku
- Argentina Haiku Reprise
- England not Argentina Haiku and Argentina Haiku
- Czech Republic vs Ghana Haikus
- Supporting England Haiku
- Brazilian Haiku
- England vs Paraguay Haiku
- Trinidad and Tobago Haiku
- World Cup Haikus 12,13,14
- World Cup Haikus 10 and 11
- World Cup Haiku 9
- World Cup Haiku 8
- World Cup Haiku 7
- World Cup Haiku 6: The Rainbow
- World Cup Haikus 4 and 5
- World Cup Haikus 2 and 3
- World Cup Haiku 1
- Pathetic (in)Fallacy
- The Care Home
- It is all interconnected after all Haiku
- Must be a British Isles England Manager ? Haiku Slam
- It came upon a midnight clear
- Gypsy Chants and Traveller Rants:
- Coincidental Haiku
- STFC and BCFC HAIKU
- Haikus for the (w)Rec(k)
- Being English
- Post Modernism
- Copse and Robbers Haiku
- THE PARADOX OF SMALLPOX.
- Dream Time
- Homage to Catalonia
- 7/7: Change/Continuity
- The Old Man(ager) on the Moon Haiku
- Cup Final Punditry and Ecology Haiku
- Manchester United 1 Chelsea 3: The Golden Mean
- VE Day
- Swapping Sky with Shakespeare
- “I’ll be loving you always”
- Life’s Rime’s Rhymes
- RED SHIFT
- From John Ball to Football and Bad Language Haiku
- PORRAJIMOS – THE GREAT DEVOURING
- The Disabled and the Holocaust
- Football and the Holocaust
- ONE IN TEN
- Technology, Referees and Di Canio
- Three Minutes’ Silence
- Swindon Town versus Colchester United
- Hospital Ball
- War and Christmas – 2 pieces for peace
- Socratic Logic
- Spain versus England
- The Fundamental Things Apply for Senor Aragones
- Thanks Paul ( for Paul Cannoville)
- Paradise Lost and Regained in 4 days
- Elegy Written in a Country Campsite
- Coca-Cola’s Sponsorship.
- Football’s Second Nature
- 9/11 Congressional Inquiry
- Why Playing Football is just like Not Paying Taxes
- Penalty Shoot Out and Sudden Death
- Czech Republic 0 Greece 1
- France 0 Greece 1 Exeter City Too
- Alles Uber Deutschland
- The Azzurri and Grey Skies Thinking
- Nedved
- Pride without the Prejudice
- Existentialist Football Tournaments
- Totti and Beckham, Footie and Mouth
- Holland 1 Germany 1
- A Country misses a Penalty but meets its Targets
- Sunday: England versus France
- Christianity and Tolerance at Llanthony Priory
- Tobruk 1942 and Weston-Super-Mare, 1957
- Football Fans and Bottled Water
- The Tinkerman and Cartesian Dualism
- UNITED NATIONS OF FOOTBALL
- One picture is worth a thousand words (True Story)
- Global Warming: Is it Winter or is it Spring?
- Zenden
- RWANDA
- The British Museum and Football
- Old Fashioned but Post-Modernist
- It’s a Difficult Month, November
- THE WALTER TULL MEMORIAL
- Red and White Poppies
- Tommy and a One in Ten Chance
- Gloucestershire and Pasadena, Ca.
- Cartesian Dualism and Sammy Igoe
- The Politics of Heritage
- Faith, Hope and Charity
- End of the Close Season
- Walter Tull and Family History
- THIS IS YOUR LIFE
- WHERE DOES RACISM COME FROM?
- Suitcases and Sanctuary
- No Bluebirds Over The White Cliffs Dover
- BACK TO THE FUTURE: BLAKE AT NUMBER 7.
- BACK TO THE FUTURE: BLAKE AT NUMBER 7.
- In My Name
- Not in my Name
- Optimism and Pessimism
- Jude the Supporter
- LIFE IMITATES ART
- The Best Game Ever with the Best Players Ever
- Come Back Dad (Again)
- POETS X1
- Brussel Sprouts
- TOP FOOTBALLERS 11
- We are all part of Team Universe
- St. George
- Doctor Foster
- Come on England’
- AS Adema 149 (og149) Stade Olympique l’Emyrne 0
- The Journey
- Black Britons Here Before The English
- Cool Britannia: For Black History Month
- Fascism
- Fish and Chips and Football
- Cool Britannia: For Black History Month
- Citizens of the World Unite Your Goalposts With Crossbars
- Football Sums Haiku
- Unity is Strength
- Top 100 Britons: Late Football Results
- One Minute’s Silence
- Football Time
- WHISTLING (Why Don’t People Whistle Anymore -Except Refs?)
- Football as a state of alienated Love Haiku
- Summer Time and the Living is easy
- Changed my Mind about Brazil Haiku
- Philosophical Doubt Removed Haiku
- THE RED CROSS OF ST.GEORGE
- Over The Moon
- Keats, Newton and Luton
- Polly Glot is malade comme un parroquet
- Feng Shui and the World Cup
- Doctor Elo’s Formula for forecasting the Score
- ONE WORLD, ONE NATION, ONE CITY, WORLD CUP 2002
- Postcard From LA, That’s LA in Hertfordshire and Cheshire
- Little Rock, Arkansas, 1957, and Team Universe
- Why a Football is Round Haiku
- The Banality of Evil
- Postcard from Vancouver
- New Year View, 2002.
- HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY 1
- HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY – GASSED
- For John Summerbee
- For Stanley
- Why a Christmas Tree is just like a Footballer
- Dearest Bank Manager
- Come Back Dad
- Painswick War Memorial
- Wembley Way of Consciousness
- Total Football
- Splendid Isolation
- Big Apples in Autumn
- Last Lunch in Nonza
- A Late Summer’s Night Dream
- As Staam Likes It, Act 1v
- Adlestrop Part 2
- Adlestrop Part 1
- Swapping Shirts With Shakespeare – Sonnet 666
- Two Cultures
- Damant
- For These, Part 2
- He read it in the Tea Leaves: England 4 Germany 2
- Apple Trees on the Somme
- Come on England
- Swapping Shirts with Shakespeare
- Freedom Of Movement
- The Results – for Refugee Week
- World Refugee Week
- MELKSHAM UNDER 12’S, 1996 – JUNIOR CHRIS-CROSS QUIZ
- The Human Race
- Spenser Prior explores the Relationship between Language and Logic
- Bored
- What Now?
- Football is a Grassroots Game
- The Trains are on Time on Cup Final Day
- The Secret Garden (Just like the tree we stayed up)
- Foucault Off! (Memo to Post-Modernists)
- In Perpetua Mobile – CORRECT VERSION – without U.S. spell check
- Morality and the League Tables
- Symbols
- Ode to a Satellite Dish
- Fan-Fair for the Common Fan instead of the usual Fan-Fare
- Collecting Autographs
- Football as Religion – The One True Path
- ON SEEING A BUS WITH A SIGN “SORRY I’M NOT IN SERVICE”
- Why the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food is just like a Referee
- On Being Told That Your Knee Is Knackered
- Why I hate Rugby
- John Milton and Football
- LAURIE LEE AT THE FOOTBALL MATCH
- Football Time
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
joe morris
16th May 2022
Denys E. W. Jones
15th May 2022
joe morris
15th May 2022
Emdad Rahman
14th May 2022
Alex Saynor
14th May 2022
Alex Saynor
14th May 2022
joe morris
12th May 2022
kevin halls
9th May 2022
joe morris
8th May 2022
Crispin Thomas
8th May 2022
Crispin’s Corner
In Memoriam
Kick It Out & Christmas Truce
Latest Comments
27th April 2022 at 10:01 pm
Many thanks for featuring my poem. It’s been one hell of a journey but for all the bad times I’m still here supporting my home town club. Play Up Sky Blues !
See in context
27th March 2022 at 11:36 am
Re: first verse of ‘My dad’ by Joe Morris..
Great words Joe…Moving.
It also reminds me, of all the people that I’ve been with in my life that just didn’t get football at all, full stop. So basically you never mentioned it, unless you enjoyed dumbfounded stares or extensive yawns! .
People who I talked with at length , often on their level, about loads of other stuff we both loved and like you basically everything but football!
This coincdentally included my strange dad : David Thomas : a brillant bohemian beatnik CND and Peace loving artist. He was someone who, being a very young writer and artist myself , with whom I could have had and shared so much stuff in common, but who I only finally met when I was 15.
As a result, and with the over-riding presence at atmosphere of his new partner and new step-son, I only actually got to see him intermittently very briefly for around 20 years, before he passed on..
Your poem also reminds me of John Lennon’s words from the song ‘Julia’:
Half of what i say is meaningless,
but i say it just to reach you..”
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26th March 2022 at 7:04 pm
Haha, thanks Crispin, I hope you can at least see your pie well enough to eat it!
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26th March 2022 at 6:58 pm
Great imagery Joe …but I struggeled to read it in the fog at first…
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24th March 2022 at 9:28 pm
Looks like FGR are going up as champs Crispin ? A season is the proverbial rollercoaster ride, up and down and twists and turns. As Greavsie said ” It’s a funny old game. ” We love it though. ⚽️
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24th March 2022 at 9:12 pm
Tell me about it Kev…!!!!!
Great emotion …just how we’re feeling here in leafy Glos!
best C
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22nd March 2022 at 10:18 am
…Fan is short for fanatic.
Empires fall. Football’s
nowhere near
as important
as life and death…..
Great words Greg..keep on …best… C
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28th February 2022 at 9:10 am
‘Roman holiday’ … good line, Joe. As a Chelsea fan, I can’t get my thoughts together on all this yet. I suppose it would be nice to write something before the Big One drops
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18th January 2022 at 9:21 am
“Are you – and this is the most important –
wearing your lucky pants?”
(from ‘Reasons Why You Lost’ by Joe Williams)
ALWAYS JOE!
But when it’s cold like tonight at FGR v Mansfield its the Lucky Long Johns..
Rave on Lucky Pants.
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11th January 2022 at 10:21 pm
It’s weird to see it happening, especially when you consider the price of tickets at PL games. So much action often happens in the final 5 mins!
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