World Cup Haiku

 A haiku for every England game at the 2026 World Cup

England v Croatia

Kane at the double

Blood and thunder second half

An enthralling start

England v Ghana

Sleepy-time England

At Ghanaian tea party

Settle for a point

England v Panama

A man with a plan?

Tuchel's England top the group

Kane beats Lineker

England v DR Congo

Defence breached early

England leave it late to win

Kane's lighting strikes twice

England v Mexico

Breathless performance

Azteca nightmares banished

Squeaky voice time

England v Norway

Jude; not so obscure

Holding back the Viking tide

England sail on

England v Argentina

Lions take the lead

But feed control to the GOAT

Messi masterclass

England v France

Lions rampant start

French response makes England sweat

Match of the World Cup?

Eulogy to a Moth

We found it dead in our daughter's bed

It was light as a feather

And we wondered whether there were any words

To say, with which to pay our respects

To this creature, on that would barely feature

In our day to day lives

One which only ever arrives

With the sun down, light switched on

A true fly by night on paper wings

This airborne goth

Sleep well, little moth

Shane

You set me spinning

A wizard of mastery

and mystery

Joyous to watch

Your skill and enthusiasm

To be bamboozled by googlies

Flustered by flippers

To be treated to a masterclass

Every time

And now, never again

Will we hear the words

'Bowling Shane'

Brings a tear to my eye

Never again that zinc cream smile

Sits heavy in my chest

Though I wanted to

I could never bowl as well as you

But there was no one better

To emulate

No one better to hate

In all those Ashes defeats

And no one better to miss

Not that we wanted to so soon

Hoping

Hoping
For a Christmas
Getting together with
Those we love and care about most
Hoping
For a winter
With a family kept safe
And no gruelling home schooling
Hoping
For a new year
Getting out and about
A return to normality
Hoping
Hoping...

Another Channel Tragedy

I'm just going to leave it at this, because really, there is nothing else to say:

Hopes dashed
Like their bodies
Trying to escape death
But finding it, wet and tugging
Drowning

Choice - for National Poetry Day 2021

This my poem for National Poetry Day, inspired by their theme of ‘Choice’.

I have tried to think about ‘What is choice?’ And ‘Who has it?’

Choice is a word that is used a lot in the modern world, especially since the opening of privatisation and free markets in the UK. We are told that we can choose all sorts of things, but do we really have choice, or is this just an illusion.

Having said that, in the western world we have much more choice around our everyday lives than those in other countries, but even here large amounts of the population do not really have choice.

In the backdrop of Sarah Everard, can any woman really say that they have the choice to walk alone anywhere at night?

In the wake of Black Lives Matter, can any person of colour really say that they have the choice to follow certain careers or be comfortable in certain places?

In the current energy crisis that hits the UK, and the loss of a large number of energy companies, who can honestly say that they have a real choice in who provides their gas and electricity?

And in the wake of Covid, how many people can say that they’ve had a choice in the way they work from now and into the future? Is homeworking possible? Is it enforced?

The key to choice comes with power, privilege and control. None of us will really have choice until we are able to harness all of these to some degree.



Freedom
Comes from choices
As we are always taught.
Or are we caged in a cycle?
Upgrades.
Switching.
Renewal dates.
Comparison websites.
Where differences are miniscule
And our minds become swamped
What is a choice?
Power.
Control.
This is freedom,
To have power and control.
But for those who lack these
Means no freedom.
No choice.

Suburbia on Sea

Raining

Pelted windows

Gurgling down the drainpipes

Fast flowing rivers in gutters

Flooded gardens

Water pooling in the rosebeds

Settling on the bin lids

Suburbia

On sea.

We've had a few hard downpours lately...

In Twenty Five Years

It's twenty five years since Euro 96 and the last time Wembley hosted England v Germany in a tournament game.

In penalties and heartbreak
In phantom goals and pain
In hope that crumbles into dust
And washed away with rain
 
In hope and dream co-mingled
In football coming home
In records that write of failure
In an ever growing tome
 
In all our patient waiting
In a quarter century
In another twenty-five years gone by
A silverware anniversary

A Shot In The Arm

Hope is in the air

Confidence building daily

A shot in the arm

My wife and I both had our first vaccine doses this week. I had AZ whilst my wife had Pfizer today. I had a day or so of fever and a general fluey feeling but supposedly Pfizer has few side affects. It remains to be seen what difference the vaccines actually make against covid, but we will find that out in time I'm sure. 

It's hard not to feel the general vibe of confidence in the air though I'm not sure how much the warmer weather has to do with that. I took the baby out for a walk at the weekend and was stopped a couple of times for a chat by some of our elderly neighbours. Their attitudes were almost childlike and they seemed thrilled to be outside and interacting with others. I can understand where they are coming from.

I do hope that this is not a false dawn, and that even though future outbreaks are likely, they remain short and flat.

Also added are a couple of  photo's from my walk at the weekend, from Frank's Park, near Belvedere.

Snooker and a Poem - "Crowds"

I've been watching the closing stages of the World Snooker, and its marvellous to see crowds back in to watch. I don't think I realised, until now, how much a difference it can make to an atmosphere, even watching it on TV. It would be lovely to think that this marked the beginning of things getting back to normal, at least in some capacity. We shall see. But greatest of all is to see the man who always sits in the corner, at the front, is back in his seat again after a year away.

The shouting is loud
It shivers down my spine
The roars of the crowd
Says that it may be a sign

That the return to normal life
Might now be coming true
Though it rests upon a knife
We've almost made it through

Sport doesn't really work
If there's no-one there to watch
To sigh, or go beserk
At triumph, or when they botch

So can we really dare
To hold our hopes high when
The man who's always there
Is back in his seat again

NaPoWriMo Day 30 - "Fairy Folly"

The final prompt:

And now for our final (still optional!) prompt. Today’s prompt is based on a prompt written by Jacqueline Saphra, and featured in this group of prompts published back in 2015 by The Poetry Society of the U.K. This prompt challenges you to write a poem in the form of a series of directions describing how a person should get to a particular place. It could be a real place, like your local park, or an imaginary or unreal place, like “the bottom of your heart,” or “where missing socks go.” Fill your poem with sensory details, and make them as wild or intimate as you like.

It was tricky really finding the inspiration within one day for this and I've probably ended up with something a little generic at least in terms of concept, but I hope the rhythm is interesting. I apologise for the length:

If you go to seek the fairy queen
You must be sure, you must be keen
For a special journey you must take
To seek out that fairy queen
Then you must be very keen

Turn off right at the old oak tree
Never turn left or you will not see
The fairy queen that you desire
Be sure of your way at the old oak tree
If a magical world you want to see

And when you pass the patch of holly
Avoid its prickles, no gosh and golly
For to sneak up upon the fairy queen
You will need silence at the patch of holly
Don't let them hear your gosh and golly

You may feel sleepy at the three grey willows
But don't lay down with rocks as pillows
Don't fall for the fairy queen's magic
Turned three witches into three grey willows
And they'll use your head for their own pillows

Then you'll come to an open glade
Where you must weave daisies in your braid
If you wish to fit in at the fairy queen's court
But don't you wander in that open glade
And never use buttercups in your braid

Now push yourself through a hedge of loam
And you will find that fairy queen's home
But do beware as she won't let you leave
From that palace in the dark in the hedge of loam
(near the glade, past the willows
near the holly, past the oak)
That you in your folly must now call home

NaPoWriMo Day 29 - "Lonely Planet"

Today's prompt:

And now, for our prompt (optional, as always). This one is called “in the window.” Imagine a window looking into a place or onto a particular scene. It could be your childhood neighbor’s workshop, or a window looking into an alien spaceship. Maybe a window looking into a witch’s gingerbread cottage, or Lord Nelson’s cabin aboard the H.M.S. Victory. What do you see? What’s going on?

Having read about Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins death last night, this was the first thing that popped into my head when I read this prompt, and it made me think of the view of the Earth from the window of the spaceship. I also recently watched the film Stowaway which also has scenes of Earth seen from space, providing a bit more inspiration:

I see it floating
Part submerged and bobbing
On the surface
Of a star-spangled sea

I see it suspended
Hung by invisible wires
Swung by invisible hands
Around the glowing sun

I see it flying
A bird of paradise
Dressed in fine plumage
Of blues and grey-greens

I see Earth; our home
Alone in a vast expanse
A vessel teeming with life
Searching for safe harbour

NaPoWriMo Day 28 - "Questions"

The website was all back to normal today. So here's the prompt:

Our prompt today (optional, as always), is to write a poem that poses a series of questions. The questions could be a mix of the serious (“What is the meaning of life?”) and humorous (“What’s the deal with cats knocking things off tables?”), the interruptive (“Could you repeat that?”) and the conversational (“Are those peanuts? Can I have some?”). You can choose to answer them – or just let the questions keep building up, creating a poem that asks the reader to come up with their own answer(s).

As a parent of young children it was easy to come up with some questions for this poem, as the whole day seems to be an exercise in fielding questions. Especially one's related to food:

When will we get there?
What's that in my feet?
When is it my birthday?
What do we have to eat?

Why do I have to go to sleep?
What cuddly can I take?
Why do you have to go to work?
Please can I have some cake?

When will it be Tuesday?
Why do ducks say quack?
Can we take the bus home?
When do I get my snack?

Why do I have to tidy?
Where did you put my pen?
Why is it we have to poo?
I'm hungry again!

NaPoWriMo Day 27 - "Beat of my Heart"

The NaPoWriMo website has been down and the Day 27 prompt hasn't updated properly as far as I can tell, so I'm having to go by what's on Twitter:

...get in touch with some minor, haunting feelings

With little to go on I've interpreted this as best I can, so here's today's poem and I hope it provides a haunting feeling:

The beat of my heart
The beat of my heart

Am I being watched?
I just can't tell
But up in my head
Rings a warning bell
With the beat of my heart
The beat of my heart

There's something thre
That I just can't see
Rooted in place
But it wants to be free
With the beat of my heart
The beat of my heart

A shiver running
Along my spine
Something's calling
That's hard to decline
To the beat of my heart
The beat of my heart

A passing feeling
Dark and bereft
Then it falls away
And all that's left
Is the beat of my heart
The beat of my heart

NaPoWriMo Day 26 - "Integrity"

Today's prompt:

And now for our (optional) prompt. Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a parody. Besides being fun, writing parodies can be a great way to hone your poetic skills – particularly your sense of rhyme and sound, as you try to mimic the form of an existing poem while changing the content. Just find a poem – or a song – that has always annoyed you, and write an altered, silly version of it. Or, alternatively, find a poem with a very particular rhyme scheme or form, and use that scheme/form as the basis for a poem that mocks something else.

If you’d like to get some inspiration, you might consider some of the poems that Lewis Carroll included in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, which parody the moralistic verse of Isaac Watts. For example, “The Crocodile” is a send-up of Watts’ “How Doth the Little Busy Bee,” while “Tis the Voice of the Lobster” is a parody of Watts’ poem “The Sluggard.” Or, for a briefer and more whimsical poem, consider “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat,” which is a parody of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”

I have to admit that inspiration came very quickly for me today. I'm not sure it's parody, I think it's more satire, but you have to go with what's in your head. I taken as my basis the song Waking Up by Elastica, which is a song I really like, and changed the lyrics to concern Boris Johnson and all the latest sleaze that's been going on:

On the side of a bus
Said I'd pay them
But I only gave the NHS
A one percent rise
Needed some kit
So I called them
And gave all my mates
The PPE prize

Integrity and honesty has never been easy
Oh-wo-wo I think you should know
(repeat)
Distract with long words
Tell another lie

To drive to test eyesight
Isn't that reckless
I said this to cover up
For my mate Dom
I did up my flat
With some money
But I won't tell you where it is
I got it all from

Integrity and honesty has never been easy
Oh-wo-wo I think you should know
(repeat)
Rumple up my hair
Tell another lie

Integrity and honesty has never been easy
Oh-wo-wo I think you should know
(repeat)
Smile charmingly
Tell another lie

NaPoWriMo Day 25 - "Midsummer"

Today's prompt:

Our prompt for today (optional, as always) is to write an “occasional” poem. What’s that? Well, it’s a poem suited to, or written for, a particular occasion. This past January, lots of people who usually don’t encounter poetry got a dose when Amanda Gorman read a poem at President Biden’s inauguration. And then she followed it up with a poem at the Superbowl (not traditionally an event associated with verse!) The poem you write can be for an occasion in the past or the future, one important to you and your family (a wedding, a birth) or for an occasion in the public eye (the Olympics, perhaps?).

On the face of it this seemed like quite a good prompt but I really struggled finding a subject that I knew much about or even inspired me. I've written poems like these before, but I like to read up on things and churn a few ideas in my head for a few days, so writing something in a day for this was hard. Also the kids have been pretty hard work today too, so most of my mental energy has been focused on that.

Anyway, I managed to write a poem in the end, based around the Swedish Midsummer celebration. It's kind of important to me as it's when I first met my wife to be, not that the poem really reflects any of that however:

To celebrate the longest day
In a very special way
Erect a pole under the sun
Drink and dance and have some fun
Each town and hamlet are unique
And they hold them in a different week
But beware their songs will have you agog
As one indeed concerns a frog

NaPoWriMo Day 24 - "Squirrel"

The prompt:

Today’s (optional) prompt is a fun one. Find a factual article about an animal. A Wikipedia article or something from National Geographic would do nicely – just make sure it repeats the name of the animal a lot. Now, go back through the text and replace the name of the animal with something else – it could be something very abstract, like “sadness” or “my heart,” or something more concrete, like “the streetlight outside my window that won’t stop blinking.” You should wind up with some very funny and even touching combinations, which you can then rearrange and edit into a poem.

To be honest I struggled following the meaning of today's prompt, so I've gone a little off prompt, although I have taken on the animal theme. Since last Autumn we've been seeing squirrels go back and forth through our garden, especially after the girls left some acorns out for them, plus it seems that one of our neighbours has been leaving out peanuts too. All three kids love to see the squirrels and watch them as they dart about. So my poem has been inspired by them:

We watch as they hurry-pause
Hurry-pause along the fence
Paws full of acorn or nut
Taking a nibble
As tail flits and shakes
Signalling
Flutter-flutter
Wiggle
Squirrel semaphore
A dart now
Arrowing down to the water table
Drinking quick
And up again with a nod
A twitch
Then off
Up and over the shed roof

NaPoWriMo Day 23 - "Last Chance"

Today's prompt:

And now for today’s prompt (optional, as always). One thing that makes me want to write poetry is reading poetry. Sometimes, reading another poet’s work gives me an idea or image. And sometimes I read a poem that I want to formally respond to – whether because I agree with it, or disagree with it, or just because it starts a conversation in my head that I want to continue on the page.

Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that responds, in some way, to another. This could be as simple as using a line or image from another poem as a jumping-off point, or it could be a more formal poetic response to the argument or ideas raised in another poem. You might use a favorite (or least favorite poem) as the source for your response. And if you’re having trouble finding a poem to respond to, here are a few that might help you generate ideas: “This World is Not Conclusion,” by Peter Gizzi, “In That Other Fantasy Where We Live Forever,” by Wanda Coleman, “La Chalupa, the Boat,” by Jean Valentine, or “Aubade: Some Peaches, After Storm,” by Carl Phillips.

This prompt troubled me to begin with. There are so many good poems and I don't think I really have a favourite or one that really speaks to me, at least I have to be in the right mood for the right poem. So I decided to take a different tack, and came here for the Poetry Foundation poem of the day to see if it could give me inspiration. And it did. It was a poem called Earth Day by Jane Yolen. Here is my response poem:

And we
Upon this Earth must see
That we cannot live
Or breathe
Without the buzzing insects
The fish that seethe
Within the oceans
Without those very waters
Which we drink
There are many who think
That they are above
Nature’s ways
But if the present dallies
It will be the future that pays
 
Climate denial
Is wrong, is vile
It pretends to ignore
The fear and famine
The death and upheaval
Of bitter war
If our planet Earth
Decides to cleanse itself
To wash away
The human ants in a rising tide
To say
You had your chance
But now you are a boil
I have to lance

NaPoWriMo Day 22 - "Cornetto"

The prompt:

Finally, here’s our (optional) prompt for the day. It comes to us from Poets & Writers’ “The Time is Now” column, which provides weekly poetry prompts, as well as weekly fiction and creative non-fiction prompts.

In a prompt originally posted this past February, Poets & Writers directs us to an essay by Urvi Kumbhat on the use of mangoes in diasporic literature. As she discusses in her essay, mangoes have become a sort of shorthand or symbol that writers use to invoke an entire culture, country, or way of life. This has the beauty of simplicity – but also the problems of simplicity, in that you really can’t sum up a culture in a single image or item, and you risk cliché if you try.

But at the same time, the “staying power” of the mango underscores the strength of metonymy in poetry. Following Poets & Writers’ prompt, today I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that invokes a specific object as a symbol of a particular time, era, or place.

I struggled with the idea of this prompt, in the sense that I felt uneasy about the ideas that objects end up just standing for a whole idea or place. I'm not sure I think too much in this way (although I could be wrong), and I just don't have enough time to think too deeply.

Instead I took it in a different way, and tried to think of something that evoked a very clear memory of place for me personally. When I went to University, we had a cinema on site which showed fairly up to date films. I used to go at least a couple of times a week usually. It was a way to get out and be around people without actually having to be with people. I ended up with a kind of ritual of always buying a cornetto before a film, that I could eat to pass the time before the film started. Now if I see a cornetto, I think of nothing else but that little cinema:

The cold and the crunch take me back
Knees squashed on narrow red benches
Smells of cigarettes and stale beer
Fizz-pops of soda cans punctuate the humming
Murmurs of excitement and thoughts of expectation
And when the lights go down
No one can see that you are alone

NaPoWriMo Day 21 - "Shadow"

Today's prompt:

And now for our (optional) prompt. Have you ever heard or read the nursery rhyme, “There was a man of double deed?” It’s quite creepy! A lot of its effectiveness can be traced back to how, after the first couplet, the lines all begin with the same two phrases (either “When the . . .” or “Twas like,”). The way that these phrases resolve gets more and more bizarre over the course of the poem, giving it a headlong, inevitable feeling.

Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that, like this one, uses lines that have a repetitive set-up. 

This prompt very much appealed to me. The combination of pattern and rhythm is quite playful and I enjoyed having a think about it. I've been inspired by the difficulties of getting kids to sleep:

I’d just begun to say goodnight
She would not sleep - she had took fright
She’d seen a shadow upon the wall
The shadow moved and that was not all
The shadow swirled and whirled and weaved
It whirled about and would not leave
The shadow danced and sang a song
And as it danced it banged a gong
The gong it was so loud she said
That she could never sleep in bed
Sleep I said, it was just a light
And began again to say goodnight