What They Say About You

is the title of my new poetry collection, to be published by Leamington Books, Edinburgh, later this year. Below is a sample poem from the book.

The Downside of Knowing a Poet

Don’t write.
Don’t phone.
Don’t wait
outside my door in the rain.

Yes, I adore you.
I’d do anything for you,

except ever see you again.

Your sorrow
is so tangible
I can taste it,

but our last parting
was so perfect,
it would be a shame to waste it.

This poem was published in the December 2008
issue of Quadrant Magazine, Australia.

Game On!

My book of football poems will be reprinted in the new year, with the following introduction -

Some of the poems in this book were inspired by the writers listed below -

Page 14. Cargoes 2000 - John Masefield.
Page 16. Sonnet 15:00 - William Shakespeare.
Page 18. Assistance... - Martha Collins.
Page 20. Tacit Tactics - e.e. cummings.
Page 22. The Long Game Closes - H. F. Chorley.
Page 23. We Millions Watching - Frank Scott.
Page 30. Royal, as in Real - Philip Larkin.
Page 41. Paris: Match - E. A. Robinson.
Page 46. Forensic - Joyce Sutphen.

I am contemplating a football poetry book
containing only parodies.
It will be titled Parodies Lost.
Or perhaps Paradise Lost, Comus Drew.

Shopping Forecast

The Shopping Forecast issued by the Dole Office
at 1930 on Thursday 8th June.

There are warnings of Sales in Frasers,
Debenhams, Esslemont and Macintosh.

The general Shopping List at 1300:

Iceland, North Utsire, South Utsire.
10p off at Iceland, while stocks last.
Lurpak £1.06 decreasing 5 or 6p
by 1300 tomorrow.
North it’s dearer, south it’s dearer.

Faeroes, Cromarty Co-op
Fisherman’s Friends reduced
to tears. Automatic Lighthouse
on the blink. 40 watt
lightbulbs sold out.

German Bite, Biscuit, Thin as Air.
Strudels, Hob Nobs, 5p off.
Peckish, becoming famished 1 or 2.
Decreasing 3 or 4
dress sizes.
Gail, forced, ate.

Isle of Jura, Baileys, Rhum.
70p off 70cl.
Westerly, veering uncertainly.
Becoming paralytic after 6 or 7.
Occasional slurring.
Dribble.
Poorly later.

Hiking, Base Rate, Robber Bank.
Variable, becoming high.
Extortionate for a time. APR 20 or 30.
Mastercard and Visa low.
Hard rain. Overdraft increasing 100%.
Poor.

Viking, Forties, GSOH.
Low, 100 miles south of Shetland,
WLTM Siren or Silkie.
No mermaids.
Rising Northwesterly
in anticipation.

That is the end of the Shopping Forecast.

My Boss, The Sea

In the grey estates of Industry
all outlooks are bleak. Windows
seldom show more than the
factory opposite, a dirty apex
of corrugated misery. Often
the scene is a drab brick wall.

But in this new job one of the
windows look out on the sea.
It is a small rectangular
blessing, a keyhole full of
weather, sending reports of
seagulls, currents and clouds.

Now and then, when I look up
from the universal oblong of
Windows 98 I can sometimes
see a tiny red ship take an age
to traverse the length of the
window ledge.

When I turn back to my screen
my boss is usually at my shoulder
branding me as a dreamer
who should pay more attention
to Autocad icons and less to
these maritime meanderings.

So I continue drawing details
on my screen. When the prints
are issued they will be sent
to the client, who will build
a huge red ship and send it
sailing, tiny past my window.

The Sea at Night, Dunbar

Is a notional, unearthly place,
a dreamed room
with no sound ground between
what's seen and what's assumed.

Gannets skim a cliff of air,
the press of spent typhoons,
and 'round the headland, in the Firth
the Bass Rock booms.

Love Jazz