Archives » Poems

  • Tides

    I was struggling for something to post today, as recent times have not been times of any substantial creative output. So I had a dig through some older poems, and thought most of them might need some reworking before posting here!
    In any case, I found this one from the mid 1990’s. It’s a love poem […]

    Tuesday 4th March 2008 - 6:13:44 PM | Comments (3)

  • Downpour

    I’ve been noticing that now this poetry blog of mine has been around for a while, it appears to be established a little in the search engines, and is getting a fair number of daily visitors. This is all I ever wanted - I struggled for about ten years sending off poems, only to […]

    Wednesday 6th February 2008 - 2:04:09 PM | Comments (10)

  • Darkfall

    As the clocks go back, the nights draw in, fireworks fill the air, Christmas decorations threaten, and the air gets colder, I thought it was appropriate to bring this poem to a wider audience. It has gone down well at readings in the past, I only hope it goes down well at my new Writers’ […]

    Monday 30th October 2006 - 4:42:19 PM | Comments (2)

  • Alcohol

    Alcohol has played a big part in my life - sometimes positively and sometimes negatively. All too often negatively! For a long time I spent life in a kind of Dylan Thomas haze of self destruction. The killing factor for me is that I’m a bit of a control freak, or at […]

    Tuesday 25th April 2006 - 2:27:41 PM | Comments (4)

  • Pilgrim

    Another travelling poem, written when I was actually travelling - physically, that is. I’ve passed through a lot of stations since I wrote this, physically and philosophically, but I sometimes think this pilgrimage will only end when the engine stops.
    Pilgrim
    Day snakes
    Along miles of track,
    Trees either side sprint
    Into distance,
    The engine pulls me with its drone
    To […]

    Thursday 30th March 2006 - 6:34:05 PM | Comment

  • Itinerant

    This is from when I was travelling back and forth between home and and my University town, must be about 15 years ago now (how time creeps on). Not a major poem, I was just feeling miserable today, thought it could be worse and dug this poem out.
    Hopefully, at the rate I update this […]

    Monday 20th March 2006 - 7:35:53 PM | Comment

  • Tableau

    This was written during what friends have been calling my “window period”, when I would write lots of poems from the perspective of looking through a window. This one was conceived while looking out of a window on the 4th floor of Manchester Central Reference library, it was raining, people were going about their […]

    Friday 10th March 2006 - 2:53:04 PM | Comment

  • Darkest Before Dawn

    This is from January 1997. A poem about walking in the dark, colliding with the dawn…
    Darkest Before Dawn
    Movement, just there, branch
    Like a windscreen wiper
    Over moon. Ineffective.
    Then stillness till the screech
    Of car beyond
    Reminds me of houses
    And all that goes with them.
    Pennines, slumbering jurassics,
    Backdrop to the carnival
    Of streetlights
    Pitched along
    The midway of the valley.
    If only I […]

    Sunday 26th February 2006 - 11:09:58 PM | Comment (1)

  • Agoraphobic

    I wrote this about a girl I once knew. She was agoraphobic. I tried to imagine what it was like and this poem was the result! An illustrated version of this poem first appeared in FLUX magazine, an arts and culture magazine I think is still going and on sale in the newsagents […]

    Thursday 23rd February 2006 - 8:01:47 PM | Comment

  • Interregnum

    It’s the middle of the night, and I remember during long periods when I was unemployed and frustrated, I would emulate Marcel Proust by maintaining a nocturnal existence. I’ve always been of a nocturnal bent, really - I love the interesting pause in the world when everyone else (at least locally!) is asleep, and […]

    Tuesday 21st February 2006 - 2:10:49 AM | Comment

  • Sleepless in Surbiton

    I deliberately didn’t post anything on Valentine’s Day. It would have been far too distasteful to dig out a love poem and post it just because a particular day demanded it. Last post was a simple love poem, this one is about something more specific. Just one of those nights with an […]

    Sunday 19th February 2006 - 12:56:59 AM | Comment

  • Letter in February

    A simple little poem, probably best consigned to the poetic dustbin, but since it’s 12 months before it would be appropriate to publish it again, I thought I might as well include this very short old poem from my student days (we’re talking about February 1990 here!). I am still working up to actually starting […]

    Sunday 12th February 2006 - 11:56:52 AM | Comment

  • Office Hours

    I wrote this poem when I was supposed to be working. As the title suggests, I was in an office at the time. It’s quite a sad and desperate piece, but then the futility of humdrum daily life can often be quite sad and desperate. I’ve been very busy lately running the […]

    Saturday 11th February 2006 - 10:56:12 PM | Comment

  • Vision

    I’m starting with some old stuff. This one’s about thinking and writing, and that’s all I’ll say…
    Vision
    A footprint on the moon? Yes, a step
    In the once-happeningness of pilgrimage;
    Then, the furtive overlapping of cloud.
    My heart tills an alertness of love,
    Setting store for tomorrow’s troubles.
    I hunker down by the field of drought
    To see what can […]

    Sunday 5th February 2006 - 12:12:15 AM | Comment (1)