This was our time:

A time of fat,

A time of plenty,

Of gluttony, sucked straight from the vat,

And pots of gold in packs of twenty.

A time of excess,

Of haunting, taunting, flaunting,

Of stretching the zeroes to impress;

A time of unrepentant, rabid lust,

A time of cities reduced to dust.

A time of the swine, the plundered mine,

Of hate and anger drunk on wine;

...

Read and leave comments (4)

In the oh-Christ odour of battle,

The stunned silence of snipered streets,

They will still be doing their thing -

Plying their dark entertainment

Of tango from another world:

Two oiled figures, out of age,

Swaying to the squeezebox rhythm,

Legs hypnotically intertwined,

With an unspoken whiff of sex,

Which ramps up the indecency.

Only a matter of time now.

Below, a...

Read and leave comments (4)

There is no reason, no excuse,

To kidnap those who go in peace,

To hold them in the clutch of fear;

The time has come for their release.

Hate cannot be allowed to win;

We must be ready to forgive,

To reconcile, to start again.

Without this faith, how will we live?

The ordeal they are going through

Defies imagination’s well.

Their families weep night and day;

Read and leave comments (2)

Not much goes on around my way;

It’s probably the same near you:

The brutes of buildings, boarded shops,

Unyielding gloom, the angry street,

The young, with nothing else to do.

So when they said I should join up,

I thought to myself: ‘Well, why not?’

It seemed a chance to break away

Into a blast of a cleaner air.

Nobody said I would get shot.

So now I lie be...

Read and leave comments (4)

How has the shrine of wisdom and manger

Become a nightmare of fear and danger?

Lives tossed aside, like unwanted presents,

Of factory workers and toiling peasants?

How has Christmas, day of celebration,

Been transformed into a desecration,

Where the rocket, mortar, the flag and fist

Are the only currencies which subsist,

And the welcome afforded to a guest

Is replaced b...

Read and leave comments (8)

It’s not surprising there is some fatigue;

Far away lands of which we know not much

Soon regress once the novelty wears off

And the front page headlines have moved elsewhere.

There was that time, of course; Ukraine became

Everyone’s second-favourite country.

Top people swaggered in yellow and blue

And excited queues welcomed the displaced.

It couldn’t last. The ha...

Read and leave comments (7)

Each time that I observe the world,

I should spy beauty, peace and love.

Each time I listen, I should hear

The soft song of birds, or at most

The low hum of conversation.

But when I crane my neck,

Look up, down or sideways,

In front or behind me,

Or at some frantic screen,

Or catch imagined exploits,

Mouthed off on a train, or neighbours,

Hyped up in angry gatepos...

Read and leave comments (3)

I used to see them as a boy:

Hanging around on street corners,

Loitering with intent,

Picking off the ice cream vans, one by one.

They pandered to the masses,

Displayed all their wares:

Scalpels, sedatives and inexpensive love.

They were the last resort, the leaky policy,

The get-out-of-jail card, for one more week.

Two for the price of one, sometimes.

‘Lie down...

Read and leave comments (7)

Why do they try to murder Ukraine?

Why do they turn their hatred on us?

Why do they dump their anger again

And then feign surprise at all the fuss?

Why do they slaughter the best of our youth

And try to efface all the signs of our past,

Pretending to be the masters of truth,

Denying their part in each deadly blast?

Why do they wish to hollow us out

Why do they ...

Read and leave comments (6)

With lives defined by favour and by grace,

And slotting without effort into place,

They float above the normal folk with ease,

Their major task to cultivate and please

Their backers and the sources of their cash,

To be indulged until their fortunes crash,

At which point their approach is to deny,

To obfuscate, if needed, downright lie,

To make sure they are shielded from al...

Read and leave comments (6)

The oceans rise and temperatures rocket,

But we have the answer in our pocket.

A glossy document, signed and dated –

Oh, come on, you should be elated –

In which we promise to slightly reduce

The poisonous discharges we let loose.

Not straight away, of course, you understand;

There are more pressing urgencies at hand.

Nearby, a man sinks down beneath the waves;

His ...

Read and leave comments (6)

Gaza: a father beats the floor in grief

As he feels his son’s last desperate breath.

It seems indecent to say any more,

As when, that evil Saturday morning,

A Holocaust survivor was cut down

During a crimson-coloured bout of rage.

I tell myself: this cannot be the best

That humankind has to offer. One day,

The innocent will inherit the Earth,

The puffball types in unifor...

Read and leave comments (5)

The hottest year ever, again;

We’re pigging out on greenhouse gases.

COP Twenty-Eight will be here soon,

That shamefest of chancers and asses.

The leaders set themselves targets,

Then contrive to miss them by miles,

Seasoning failure with blah-blah

And their well-practiced plastic smiles.

Meanwhile, siren voices tell us:

Get out there, get out there and score!

Read and leave comments (6)

A cold wind is blowing;

It makes its way in,

It seeps through the brick

And clings to the skin.

It pierces the heart

With icy disdain

And somehow compels you

To look up again.

And when you look up

What is it you see?

No castle, no garden,

No landscape, no tree;

Just untidy death

Of industrial scale.

Now all human life

Is a second-hand sale.

Read and leave comments (4)

It looks like a toy, my flatpack of war;

I picked it up at the D-I-Y store,

But don’t be deceived and be in no doubt,

This purchase will lead to a proper rout.

It shoots from the front, it shoots from the back,

It turns our defences into attack.

It costs next to nothing this side of town;

Once it’s assembled, the bombs will rain down.

Pitilessly, no prisoners taken,

Citi...

Read and leave comments (4)

In Hell, the flames are rising;

Bodies lie, in respectful rows.

The dead are remembered, mourned;

As grieving begins, the missing are missed.

Borders, faith? It all means nothing;

Flags and fat commanders are a joke.

If one could define tragedy,

This is a tragedy.

And yet, what happens, happens.

The usual suspects dish out blame,

But few of us are free from blame...

Read and leave comments (4)

They weep in Israel;

They weep in Palestine.

They weep in Ukraine.

The whole world should weep.

Time drifts by, faster than we think;

Death queues for its daily spoils.

Someone always cleans up afterwards.

The stubbornly alive cling on to love.

Condolences rain down;

Groups huddle, trying to empathise

And multiply excuses,

While a few, buoyed up by the circus ...

Read and leave comments (5)

The bare facts: they killed six and wounded seventeen

When a coward's rockets destroyed the Kharkiv Post.

Another crime to add to the burgeoning list.

I got used to loss at the Post when very young;

Christmas 70: my first job when still at school.

We started together, a young student and I.

Later that day, her bike was crushed by a lorry.

I was working the vans; everyone rushe...

Read and leave comments (3)

I block the traffic in the road;

And chain my body to railings,

To illustrate the catalogue

Of governments’ climate failings.

I march in the demonstrations,

Sit down on the Minister’s lawn,

To give some hope to the children

And those who have not yet been born.

Last month I was twice arrested,

For challenging this dirty game.

Fines and days in court are...

Read and leave comments (3)

Each time he gave voice to pity, to waste –

'Abstract values' in a certain parlance –

Some people would turn and say: ‘That’s no good;

You have to take sides, find someone to blame,

Separate the good guys from the villains,

Find a flag to wave, learn a proper chant.

Your words should sting like a pointed finger.’

He understood the lure of a world

Of certainty, where al...

Read and leave comments (6)

If only we could get along

As neighbours, lovers and as friends;

To learn to sing each other’s songs,

And join hands as the world intends.

Some obstacle stands in the way

Of life in harmony and peace;

The children of all nations play,

But come adulthood this will cease.

For once toy guns and catapults

Are swapped for a more strong-armed state,

There seems to...

Read and leave comments (3)

I am a molten man;

My flabby, molten face

Is looking up at you

As you beam down from space.

I used to look quite nice

When common sense ruled here,

In times we did not trash

The assets of this sphere.

You visitors would see

A smart, contented Earth,

Which knew instinctively

How to respect its worth.

But sadly man has struck

And chopped and grou...

Read and leave comments (2)

It’s a tough old job,

Lugging around the body bags.

I sweat and nearly stumble

Over the packed rows of stiffs.

I think I’ll change;

Get something in an office.

There’ll be a nice comfy chair,

And morning coffee

With a tasty slice of pie.

If you can be fatigued,

So can I.

Read and leave comments (4)

I saw an archbishop at Waterloo:

Looking for a sandwich

And spoiling for some action

With his usual cassock crew.

I suppose that this is what they do.

I once saw Lord Longford

Swapping yarns with a Tory,

But that, as they say,

Is another story.

Read and leave comments (5)

Get out there and win the war, you slackers!

You’ve had tons of weapons from your backers.

They’re no excuse: defences, mines and tanks;

You’ve all you need to break enemy ranks.

Casualties? That’s just collateral stuff;

You mean you don’t know that war will be rough?

You know what they say: you can’t take the heat?

Vacate the kitchen and stare at defeat.

We’ve stumped up t...

Read and leave comments (8)

Quite nice, on the whole, that religious chap.

High up, apparently. (Could even be the boss;

‘Numéro Uno’, said a bodyguard.)

He gave me forty minutes;

Has some good ideas.

Drinks shandy with lunch

(‘Must keep a clear head’).

Unsurprising views on midweek sex (he is sceptical)

And Elvis impersonators (better in the North).

Unlike his autobiography,

Entitled ‘Who’...

Read and leave comments (7)

The sweaty boy lay on the beach;

‘You stink’, his girlfriend said.

But when awaking later on,

They sensed a world expired,

Where everyone was dead.

There was the sea, of course;

But, in truth, there was no sea.

Just their memories of water.

They longed for yesterday’s comforts:

When the old priest cackled and quacked,

Two lovers quarrelled beneath the pines

Read and leave comments (2)

The language becomes narrower each day;

Our actions and our words decelerate.

Only in the aftermath of slaughter

Do we attempt to find the words for death:

Some words to tick the box and shrug it off,

To come to terms with our cheap cuts of guilt.

Their boy lies, unresponsive, while we live

To relish the chaos of adulthood.

Truth is complicated. Dumped in a hole,

Until j...

Read and leave comments (4)

Last night, I met somebody from Ukraine;

He told me Mykolaiv was his town.

‘Oh, I’ve heard of it,’ I said. ‘In the East.’

‘Not really,’ he replied. ‘Near Odesa.’

Embarrassed, I had to apologise:

‘I got it confused with Mariupol.’

Although, of course, I realised my gaffe,

This exchange exposed the danger of war

As big-headlines and the superficial:

‘Starts with M, four sy...

Read and leave comments (2)

They say we are in it for the long haul,

But the long haul is a poor existence.

Your options become rather limited:

Eat, sleep, work, fight, and live on subsistence.

I’ve driven lorries long haul to the West

And been to Asia on a long-haul flight,

But never put my neighbour in his grave,

Nor hid in shelters half way through the night.

Long haul relationships can b...

Read and leave comments (6)

You cannot see me,

But I can see you.

That’s how the war goes.

As you cross the road

Or jump on a bus,

I will destroy you

With minimum fuss.

But if you did spot me,

You would be amazed:

I’m no great colossus.

You’d miss me in the street,

As I have grown so small,

And, under the radar,

Hardly exist. At all.

Read and leave comments (0)

The midnight attack got him. He swept floors

For forty years. Ordinary, no frills,

He carried on his work throughout the raids,

While cautious types like us would hunker down.

Close to retirement, he always swore

The cowards would not stop his night’s routine.

‘He’s as daft as his brush,’ some people said.

He made his choice, of course, as we made ours,

And he has paid the ...

Read and leave comments (5)

The pride of our town,

Its mortar and bricks

Now crumble to dust,

In heaps of destruction

And mollified lust.

Out there men are laughing

And punching the air;

They deal in high fives,

When hitting their mark

And ending more lives.

Read and leave comments (4)

(Up to August 2023, there have been SIX evidence-free attempts in the US to impeach President Biden. Each time Donald Trump is accused of a crime, his friends call for the impeachment of the prosecutor. Where will it all end?)

Impeach! Impeach! Impeach! Impeach!

All those who govern, judge or teach.

Impeach the man, impeach the boy,

The redwood tree, the cuddly toy.

Read and leave comments (7)

(On August 13, 2023, a 23-day old baby girl was killed by Russian shelling in the Ukrainian village of Shiroka Balka. Six other people were killed in the attack.)

There’s an old saying: ‘live for the day’.

I managed to do that. Twenty-three times.

And then – you probably know what happened.

You may ask the question: ‘am I angry?’

'For missing out on the next eighty years?'

W...

Read and leave comments (9)

Here comes my son, the soldier boy;

He’ll always be my pride and joy.

I was so proud they would deploy

Someone so young, someone so young.

His face seemed hardly out of school;

Though he was kind and broke no rule,

They knew he was nobody’s fool,

For one so young, for one so young.

A picture in his uniform,

A buttoned coat to keep him warm,

He raced towards ...

Read and leave comments (8)

Dancers scatter shapes through fields of war:

Dancing around the stink and smell and sweat,

Dancing to a tune or to a heartbeat,

Dancing for their supper, dancing on the dead,

Dancing through the bullets and the bayonets,

Dancing on graves and above the pyres.

It once was simple: sessions at the barre,

A bit of matinée soft-shoe shuffle,

Of tip-tap or baggy-trousered ballro...

Read and leave comments (5)

(Russian missiles have recently struck pizza restaurants in Kramatorsk and Pokrovsk in Ukraine, killing men, women and children)

Why do you hate our pizzerias?

Why do you target tomato and cheese?

What have you got against pepperoni?

Are our four seasons failing to please?

We pride ourselves on our ingredients;

Our service is rated second to none.

But your depraved s...

Read and leave comments (5)

Politics lurks everywhere we look:

Politics of dithering and backtrack,

Of scaremongers and big-boy nostalgia.

Nowhere to hide. In the US of A,

Blusterman is lying through his teeth.

Meanwhile, the same old suspects starve,

Or steal to fill their bellies or their habit,

While, next door to this, others lead their lives,

Trying honesty to round off each year’s end.

Throug...

Read and leave comments (4)

Jacques Tati’s films should be universal,

They have so little dialogue and chat;

Yet, for some, his cinema bewilders,

The satire and comedy fall flat.

Perhaps it is the Frenchness of it all –

A supposed intellectual conceit –

Or maybe it’s down to Monsieur Hulot,

Whom he chose to interpret and repeat.

Is there not a hint of pretentiousness,

Do miming and humour...

Read and leave comments (6)

The colonel’s hamming up the bonhomie,

The President spits bile for all to see,

The regimental parakeet is shot,

A corporal is cleaning up the lot.

Stand to attention, don’t bother thinking;

Get back to the trenches, cold and stinking.

Gleaming new tanks make the battlefield shake,

Flattening its residue in their wake.

We’ve got more weapons, let’s pick a new toy;

Read and leave comments (2)

It has been quiet here so far;

The trick is getting through the day:

Ticking off hours, counting clouds,

Throwing pebbles into the lake.

I’m just one of the backroom boys,

I scrub up and write the labels.

It’s soldiers I feel sorry for;

Christ, there goes one, then another.

Poor bastard, sent flying towards

No-man’s land. I suppose that he’s….

That’s number five this ...

Read and leave comments (3)

We’re all for fighting climate change,

Until the choice gets tough;

Don't try to meddle with our cars,

Our holidays, our stuff.

What beats the smell of petrol fumes,

The whiff of kerosene,

The closet full of unworn clothes,

The cinema-sized screen?

We'll stand behind the barricades

To fight off this green crap,

And watch the lifestyle we deserve

Fall stra...

Read and leave comments (9)

They told me: pick them up at the station.

A family, two children and their mum.

Some English. The younger boy is crying.

From beneath uncertain, hollow eyes,

The mother does her best to raise a smile.

We go to the place behind the woodyard,

Stuffed with caravans and second-hand beds.

‘Processing.’ That’s what it said on the card.

‘Her husband coming soon,’ said the fat man...

Read and leave comments (4)

I will not shake her hand;

Surely you understand?

My people, every day,

Will shake the hand of death.

Her kinsmen’s uncouth plan

Inflicts its pain and hurt

Across my native land,

Where bodies lie in dirt

Days after their last breath.

I was told I must play;

She is allowed to stand

And face me at the net.

It’s not her fault, and yet

I will not shake her hand.

Read and leave comments (11)

Five hundred days is far too long;

The war has come, good times have gone.

The chiefs talk tough, the bullets fly,

And combatants prepare to die.

The weak recoil before the strong,

Whose bells and whistles multiply

Into a dark, forbidding sky

And chill winds sing their mournful song.

Faced with this daily raid on time,

This awful pillage of our youth –

A hideous, demo...

Read and leave comments (1)

With every new obscenity,

We grope for the familiar

When we try to summarise death:

‘A trickle’, steady or constant,

Of civilian casualties.

Strange how we choose to illustrate

The rubbing out of human life.

Our terminology betrays

A culture ruled by quantities

And drip-drip measurements of loss,

Or, as likely, by the comfort,

Of images of gurgling streams,

Inje...

Read and leave comments (2)

They’re coming for the writers now;

They’ll take out poets one by one.

These tellers of the awkward truths,

Who show them up for what they are,

Appear to constitute fair game

For slingshots scrounged from death’s bazaar.

(The Ukrainian writer and poet Victoria Amelina was killed in the missile strike on the pizza restaurant in Kramatorsk).

Read and leave comments (5)

What if we should try the left field option?

And wandered off message or ditched the script,

And shouted out loud: ‘Just stop the killing’.

To save the people, not yet dead, from those

Like themselves, but dressed in different garb.

Save the lives, save the years still to be lived,

Stop the anguish, the tragedy, the waste.

Turn force-fed anger into peace, disarm,

Roll back ...

Read and leave comments (2)

Must we respect the niceties of war,

When enemies adhere to no such code?

Civility becomes a fatal flaw

Which adds some extra kilos to our load.

Our protocols are there for all to see,

And everyone agrees we must abide

By rules which are the price for living free,

Although they’re only honoured by one side.

Our foe abuses captives and denies

Their fundamental r...

Read and leave comments (4)