In all our sanctuaries we sit at risk

Category: Poetry

  • Jes in Yearnland

    Posted:

    Everything about the UK’s Brexit Agon smells of rot. For a start, the whole EU issue is fundamentally irrelevant and absurd, compared to the many truly urgent concerns that need our immediate, whole and best attention. We face real ills and they harm and threaten us. The EU is not, and never was, the cause…

  • The Parrot Ails

    Posted:

    The United Kingdom – so called – continues to stagger towards Brexit. The Government – so called – keeps just “winning” so-called “victories.” Under the so-called “leadership” of Ms May, our incompetent progress towards this terrible mistake requires us to shed our honour, our pride, our connectedness, our contact with reality, our common sense, all…

  • T-Bone Trump

    Posted:

    I have written these lines in recognition of Mr Trump’s Summer visit to the UK. But what is there to recognise, in truth, behind the crass appearances presented on TV ? The squalling baby in nappies above the London skylines ? The humiliation of this small nation as it rolls out its expensive red carpets…

  • The 70th Birthday

    Posted:

    I posted this poem up on Facebook on July 3rd. Two weeks later, it had received 1,146 “Likes” and “Loves” and had been “shared” 5,210 times. The poem is by Michael Rosen and, in turn, he shared it on his own Facebook timeline and that separate posting was further shared many times. Michael was originally…

  • Parrot Speaks True and Plain

    Posted:

    This is probably the last of my series of Parrot poems. They were written quite thick and fast through June, with various very topical references. Thanks to my friend Roger Chaffin for suggesting I use the rhyme royal form. The references to a parrot come from a long and magnificent poem written in the reign…

  • Parrot Speaks of Dividends and Dishonour

    Posted:

    … continue reading

  • Parrot Speaks of the Brexit Agon

    Posted:

    “Taisez- vous, Parrot, tenez vous coy !” cries Galathea. “You said earlier you’d taisez -vous, but still you go on ! Have you forgotten all your Tudor French ?” But then we read : “Haec res acu tangitur, Parrot, par ma foy.” It’s Galathea again, or someone, speaking to Skelton in Tudor French and Latin.…

  • Parrot Speaks of Youth and Hope

    Posted:

    Skelton’s parrot is a bird of paradise. But  he mustn’t go on too long. If he has truth to tell in our storm, and wants to be heard, he has to be strategic. His cage is also his sanctuary.  … continue reading