Behind Bars
I write about what I see…
If you don’t want me to see it
Close the TV channels down
I write about what I see…
If you don’t want me to scroll up and down
Close the internet down
I write about what I hear…
If you don’t want me to listen
Put all the people behind bars
Though I fear, the truth
May slip through the cracks
Sunday 30th March 2025 6:59 pm
Come back the country I love
Come back the country I love
Come back and put
Food on my table
Come back and bring me
Peace & Love
No one is excluded
and I belong here again
Not trembling over words
Or the bang at the door
It is you who don’t belong here
anymore
Saturday 22nd March 2025 4:39 pm
This is Happening
This is not happening
This you can’t see
The prison cells are filling
Whilst you digest the lies on TV
This is not happening
This you can’t see
You play deaf dumb and blind
Until you see
This is happening
This you can see
Your brother your mother your father
Taken away
Live on TV
Wednesday 19th March 2025 1:43 pm
Lay Your Thick White Blanket on our Land
Lay your thick white blanket on our land
Cover up the corruption
The beggars scavenging for food
Lay your thick white blanket on our land
It freezes the lies in mid-air
Gives the children a smile
Freezes the parents’ tears
Let the thick white blanket stay on this earth
Monday 24th February 2025 9:42 am
The Snow is not to blame
The snow is not to blame
In fact, it covers it up
All that I see is kindness
On the white covered ground
The snow is not to blame
It offers a rest bite
from worry,
as the crystals float past
my window
an endless letting
go
an endless letting
go
Monday 24th February 2025 9:36 am
Unfriend
I’m staring out of the coffee shop window
In a strange land
A pang in my stomach
Why didn’t I take anyone with me
No one to meet
From when I was 18
Right through to my 30’s and beyond
Until 40’s 50’s I had a new one
But he withered and died
Why didn’t I take them with me
I feel a pang inside
But each carried me
To where I am now…
...
Friday 21st February 2025 6:01 pm
The knock at the door will come
The knock at the door will come,
As night follows night.
They come at this time you know
When justice is out of sight
Friday 31st January 2025 6:49 pm
Garswood Library
If I could be brave enough to remember the first time I went into my local library at the torrid age of 18.
If I could be brave enough to remember what the librarian said to me, as the jaws of a shark stamped those books with a thud.
At first, I held them scared to death, as they contained words and were unnecessarily heavy.
And then as if secretly, I finished a thing calle...
Tuesday 3rd September 2024 8:25 pm
I Fear
I fear for the soil
The mother and
Child in tow
The gentle hello
To my foreign wife
I fear that when
She leaves the house
She might not come back
The bus stop is danger
The supermarket
The train
Walking down the streets
I called my own
But now they are “Theirs”
And we must be quiet and hide
Until my country comes back
Monday 5th August 2024 2:28 pm
British Government’s Official Advice (England’s Green and Unpleasant Land)
“I need to flee my country?”
Stay and die
“I wish to stay in Britain?”
Then lighten your skin
Change your religion
Don’t talk in your mother tongue
Then you will be fine
If you decide not to accept:
Bricks through your window
Be shouted at
and knocked and spat at
in the streets
Because this is the rotten cradle of democracy
...
Thursday 1st August 2024 2:39 pm
The Black Sea
Green
Green
Green
As far as the eye can see
Like,
Green
Green clouds
Hugging the earth
And me
Sea
Sea
Sea
Rugged dangerous
Enveloping me
The People
The People
The People
Safe and secure in their own skin
Unique in pleasure
Happiness overflowing into me
Green Green
Sea Sea
The People The People
And me
Saturday 15th June 2024 12:22 pm
A Child in Gaza
Dreaming of leaving
This rock above my
Head
Dreaming of leaving
The thought you are dead
Dreaming of leaving
Going back to when I
played here, running up
the path mama mama
kissing your sweet forehead
now motionless and
cold
Dreaming of leaving
Not wishing to go
...Sunday 2nd June 2024 6:18 pm
And so it goes on…
And so it goes
On
People protest
Against dead bodies
“They’re all terrorists
each and every one”
He says, they say
And so it goes on
The people are lost
Picking through rubble
Discovering their loved ones
Dead clothes
But the truth is being hidden
Sanitised by the news
The killing is not so awful
They plead
And so...
Friday 17th May 2024 12:11 pm
Everyone’s a C*NT
Everyone’s a C*NT
I see the teenagers
Throwing things on the floor
A protest
Leads to the finger
Everyone’s a CU*T
The internet is down
They said they’d send someone round
Nobody came…
Everyone’s a *UNT
They’re blaring out music
On a crowded bus
Chatting to friends
Until ears start to bleed
Everyone’s a CUN*
...Saturday 20th April 2024 12:48 pm
A Little Bird
He belted his little heart out
Same time every day
It lasted for hours and hours
But still…
She does not come.
I shouted out to the little bird
“Why not perch on another tree?”
“I was calling out to you…”
the little bird replied,
“To keep that smile on your face.”
Wednesday 17th April 2024 6:25 pm
Election
As poor as I am
I can still see the lies
Dripping down from posters
Larger than life
Each party vying for my eye line
Sides of the same dice
Hope, Fear
Progress, Strength
Hate, Together
Each rolling towards me
Saying anything I like …
A tannoy blurts out
Some nonsensical nonsense
flags are waving in the air
and the dumb have becom...
Monday 18th March 2024 3:55 pm
Suella Braverman
Burn the tents
With the homeless inside
Attack a march
Calling for peace
Gather your stormtroopers
To march down the streets
A Nazi pogrom
In all but name
The torch has been lit,
To burn down the streets
of London, your town, neighbourhood
and brain
mulling over…
“Suella who’s the next
person, group and cause
Should...
Thursday 9th November 2023 3:09 pm
Just Some body (a child refugee)
I heard the shots, I did
And my siblings being dragged screaming
Out the door
My father ran, carrying me like a football
Up into the hills and miles away
Terror in his eyes “Which way now?”
Into the truck, freezing at night
Dumped on the shore
There was no need to ask
“Are they coming too?”
As I knew…
They were no more
The boat with a hu...
Tuesday 17th October 2023 3:30 pm
Loved
Death is
R
O
P
P
I
N
G
From the skies
L lies lifeless
O on
E V ery
Str E et
Death is
R
O
P
P
I
N
G
From the sky
Bodies mount up
1.500 here…
1.500 there…
L
O
V
E
Lies in ruins…
...
Friday 13th October 2023 8:20 pm
There
There
I’m not there
And neither are you
But we have all danced at festivals
Walked down the streets
Cooked food in our homes
I’m not there
And neither are they now…
Wednesday 11th October 2023 9:21 pm
Sinéad
In the bubble gum 80s
I floated around
For truth
And feelings
And then she cried,
And cried out loud over and over again
Her life no holes barred
No filter “just me”,
Just be
You taught me
Just be yourself
And fuck anyone who disagrees
Thursday 27th July 2023 10:25 am
Fear/Hope
Fear tips off your tongue
Like raw sewage into the sea
The air of hatred pollutes
the minds of your supporters
But across the way
Hope springs eternal,
A burning ember of
Love and peace.
Wednesday 10th May 2023 11:13 am
King Charles is more Important than You
V
That’s what the TV commentator said
Over and over again
nobody waves you to work
You can’t even afford the electricity meter
King Charles is more important than you
And yet you wave and clap along
Like a gaggle of geese
Watch the military goose step away
King Charles is no more important than you
Sunday 7th May 2023 3:35 pm
This is the Body I Love (a year of terror 2022)
This is the body I love
And I can change it
You take food from it
Let it shiver in winter
Make it wait 9 hours in an ambulance
As it withers away
This is the body I love
But you have changed it
It waits in a
bomb shelter
and screams
don’t kill me
It gasps for breath
In a frozen sea
Please don’t
Drown me
This is the...
Saturday 31st December 2022 1:14 pm
Terry Hall
Terry Hall
I heard the news
At 4.30 a.m. exactly
I knew it would hurt
And it did so badly
A voice that blew away the fluff of the 80’s
A sincere stare
And words that were rich and plenty
I heard the news
At 4.30 a.m. exactly
I knew it would hurt
And it did so badly
An honesty that left you feeling less alone
A life of pain
etched ...
Tuesday 20th December 2022 1:07 pm
We Live in Fear
We live in fear
Of putting the electricity on
We live in fear
Of the next bill to come
We freeze in desperation
As the gas dies down
We live in fear
Of people in dinghy boats,
Though we know none of them
They make us fear…
The bus we can’t catch
The train we can’t ride in
The pub we can’t go into
Whilst they unpack
Fresh Harrods s...
Thursday 10th November 2022 11:12 am
(For Salman Rushdie)
There are no words
Because words can lead to death
If I let my pen run freely
I will be the next
You will be next
Until, the door is closed
And the audience has left
Saturday 13th August 2022 2:28 pm
(For Salman Rushdie)
There are no words
Because words can lead to death
If I let my pen run freely
I will be the next
You will be next
Until, the door is closed
And audience has left
Saturday 13th August 2022 2:27 pm
The Lunatic has left The Asylum
After holding the country
In a straight jacket
Of lies, deceit and
Despicable behavior
The Lunatic has left
The asylum
After…
Trashing the country
Smashing up democracy
Popping corks when people died
The Lunatic has left
The asylum
But the rats will enter again , from the side door
...
Thursday 7th July 2022 11:27 am
You Will Pay for This
On “Victory Day” Knee deep in blood
The arms and limbs of the dead
Climb up you
In day and night terrors.
Murdered by you
Mothers
Fathers
Lovers
Sisters
brothers
children
&
Babies
All silenced by you
Your final solution…
Like the Jews in the ghetto.
All must go
But on your death bed
“Your god” whispers
...Saturday 23rd April 2022 2:38 pm
In the Silence
The cars outside my window
Rumble to and from places
Without a care in the world
The children scream out Mehmet’s name
To come out to play
And when he does
Their little faces light up
In Mariupol there is just silence
A bird sarcastically chirps
A dog sniffs round
But there is nothing to eat
The rumble of tanks has gone
The screams have ...
Tuesday 5th April 2022 1:17 pm
Mourning…
I wake up to coffee
My failing eye sight
Classical music gently calming down
The beats of the coming day
My cat encircles me
Wanting food
And then with trepidation
I turn on the news
They are waking up to
An underground shelter
Darkness all around them
Hearing in the distance
The slow thunder of tanks
And the loss of thei...
Wednesday 2nd March 2022 1:18 pm
The Sirens Ringing Out
The sirens are ringing out
Did I wake up to 1939?
Bits of paper waved in the air
As a bomb rips through a house
“we’ll hit them in their bank accounts”
But no statement can save a child’s life
The sirens ringing out
Wailing across a Kyiv square
A mother in Donetsk a sister in Odesa
A cold chill running down her spine
“It’s hopeless”
...
Thursday 24th February 2022 2:48 pm
The slow tissue paper of lies
Inflation is going down
Though you know it’s rising sky high
He gets to the dispatch box
And says 2+2 are 5
“No, it’s 6” scream the backbenchers
“It’s 7” “No it’s 9”
The thin burning tissue paper
Of lies
Corruption is a badge of honour
The truth is a lie
Just sit back and watch
The country burning from the inside
The thick corrosive wound fes...
Wednesday 2nd February 2022 9:14 am
For Once…
For once I didn’t open my eyes
And flick on the screen
Scan the news, designed to make me scream.
Posts and pictures of people “seizing the day”
Each not so subtly saying
“Look at me look at me”
Instead…
I poured coffee
With my first cigarette in hand
And looked at something ...
Tuesday 11th January 2022 10:44 am
Mutation (2021)
It was running round the House of Commons
With no mask
Handing out PPE contracts to their mates
For a laugh
As the population was falling into graves
They gave out party invites
Drunk on festive cheer.
Tears streaming down the cheeks of relatives
Who couldn’t see them go
Ho Ho Ho
The lies multiplied, given a boost
N...
Monday 27th December 2021 1:14 pm
Wayward
Everything is new here
And I know my father
Would know what to do
A history of bitter words
But he would get me through
A guide, through
These strange streets and lands
Having my back
Though he could
never say I love you
to my face
“Everything is new here”
“I know”
“I don’t know what to do? ”
You see dad… oh and
this is so difficult…
I’m here with you son.
Monday 27th December 2021 10:47 am
Not Today…
What stays with you forever
Will never live a day
The footsteps treaded over and over
The kiss that gave you away
The backlog of memories
That will never come out to play
Just banging and crashing on the ice rink
Making fools of us all
Monday 27th December 2021 10:43 am
They shoot poets, don’t they? (For the poet Abdullah Atefi killed by the Taliban, and those left in fear)
He never thought he’d be killed
By words
That freely come to your mind
Took for granted
That his thoughts could run free,
Across the city
Climb up mountains
And settle on the land
Then one night…
He was dragged out of his bed
And shot in the head
Because the stench of death
Has run riot in the streets
The Taliban snuffing out
Anyone...
Thursday 19th August 2021 12:26 pm
Retire(la)ment
I now have time
To see all those
Little David’s
Lost on the streets
Of Liverpool, Germany
And many stations in-between
Lamenting a love gone wrong
Crying to himself
Too broken hearted
To pick up the phone
Hours upon days and years
Out of sorts
A rattle bag of fears
An assortment of misery
Freshly picked from the store
But now I have ...
Monday 21st June 2021 2:14 pm
Retire(la)ment
I now have time
To see all those
Little David’s
Lost on the streets
Of Liverpool, Germany
And many stations in-between
Lamenting a love gone wrong
Crying to himself
Too broken hearted
To pick up the phone
Hours upon days and years
Out of sorts
A rattle bag of fears
An assortment of misery
Freshly picked from the store
But now I have ...
Monday 21st June 2021 2:14 pm
Under the Sun , I Was a Good Boy
Under the sun I was a good boy
I never did wrong.
The trees were very giving
As I climbed
The highest branch
Under the sun , I was a good boy
Who never did wrong
The light would stay
Till I was too tired
To kick a ball
But at home, I was bad boy
Who always did wrong.
The dark spelt
Foreboding
Trembling
Till...
The light broke way
Friday 7th May 2021 12:16 pm
Snowdrift
I can
Still feel the
Freezing cold
Air on my cheeks
An air long since gone
Like the people I used
To greet on the streets.
And you so small
I could fit you on the
Back of my bike
Sitting under the slide
So the cold rain wouldn’t bite.
I can still feel the freezing cold air...
And I worn out by life’s daily chores
Pulling the sledge to school carrying
th...
Monday 1st March 2021 6:15 pm
We should all be a bit of Captain Tom
“I won’t wear a mask.
I’ll do what I f’in want to do.”
But he just kept walking
Round and round
Doing more than this government ever could do
“I’ll see who I want
When I want.”
But in the years when he should be
Just letting go
He gave it all to us
A hospital he will never see
A cancer patient walking out pain free
A child’s broken limb, now ...
Wednesday 3rd February 2021 12:33 pm
In Every Moment
I am stuck in every moment I have lived or
Not lived enough
Each drags me back
To sort out what I
Forgot
To settle the score
Paper over the cracks
I am stuck,
In every moment
I failed
To live
I was,
But
Just not enough
Tuesday 19th January 2021 5:50 pm
Pushing Through
On a particularly down day
I saw this little fella
Pushing through
Cold all around
With little beauty by its side
On a particularly down day I saw this
And thought…
My little fella
Can pull through
Monday 4th January 2021 4:55 pm
It was the best of years It was the worst of years (2020)
Liverpool won the cup…
In an empty stadium
And stadiums of souls around the world
Ascended into heaven
It was the best of years
It was the worst of years
Vaccines were produced at break neck speed
And lies disseminated to stop people taking what they need
Heath workers went the extra mile
Risking life and limb
Applauded by million with a loud din
...
Wednesday 30th December 2020 9:28 am
America Turns the Lights on (US Election)
The lights go on
And the darkness slips away, from
The podium
The Twitter fueled hate
The stockpiling of lies, we thought it was too late
But it Brings a better day
Brings a better day
Brings a better day
A tombstone is lifted
And people can now breath
Not suffocating from insanity
And his personal greed
It brings a better day
Brings a better d...
Sunday 8th November 2020 11:28 am
It’s Bleak up North, now
It’s Bleak up North, now
Not because of the virus
But the business and people’s jobs
That will fall now
Tears 3:
The pubs that will not open their doors again
Tears 3:
The Christmas presents that won’t be bought
Tears 3:
The homelessness that will grow bigger
But not at your door…
The virus is a killer.
But you wouldn’t give ou...
Tuesday 20th October 2020 6:35 pm
I am my own worst Enemy
I am my own
Worst enemy
Perfectly made by you…
Seasoned with temper
Peppered with self-loathing
Add a dash of despondency
And there I go…
I am my own worst enemy
Perfectly made into you .
Tuesday 25th August 2020 5:15 pm
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