Planet Pantoum
Bring the cities to a standstill We have to save the planet Put apathy in landfill Take fracking back and ban it We have to save the planet Speak urgently and clear Take fracking back and ban it Disarm the … Read more
Issues and campaigns: Animals, nature and the environment
Flora, fauna, climate, conservation, …
Thoughts and Prayers
Racist terror thoughts and prayers Coffin bearer thoughts and prayers Crossing, drowning thoughts and prayers Solemn, frowning thoughts and prayers Thoughts and prayers and sad reactions Thoughts and prayers but rarely actions Stabbed and killed thoughts and prayers Life unfulfilled … Read more
Pay to Pollute
C-charge T-charge Why is it OK to congest and pollute London So long as you pay? This poem was published on the Poetry24 website on 29 October 2017.
My Love’s Love
My love loves the River Lea Discovered in recovery Visits uncover mystery On trips with children one, two, three Took looks and books and maps and found His sanctuary, his way around Walking Summer at Rammey Marsh Fetch the ball … Read more
The Daily Mail Guide to Recognising Wildfowl
Swans are ‘majestic’, the monarch owns them Geese on the other hand are ‘loathsome’. Geese migrate and know their rights While swans are English, snooty and white.
Mostly Biting Tories
Dedicated to Martin Atkins, who asked for a poem in response to this news s-tory. A poetry book fell through my door And landed on my mat I sniffed its arse and wagged my tail And showed it to the … Read more
An Injury to One
The dog sniffs and circles carefully selecting the blade of grass on which to urinate The bailiff slithers along the street switching glare from smartphone to door and back until the numbers match Whichever blade the streak of piss strikes its … Read more
Cuckoo?
Bird sings at midnight Climate change, light pollution Or just a daft cock?
First You Let The Cat Out
A satirical piece for cat-loving Leonard Cohen fans; rewritten from First We Take Manhattan … They sentenced her to living with the humans She’s going to try to rule them from within She’s purring now, she’s purring then she’ll doom them … Read more
The Coral’s Grief
The warming of oceans by greenhouse gases emitted by human activity has caused large-scale death of coral reefs. A hat tip to Dylan Thomas’ ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Dark Night’, as I nicked his villanelle refrain. Do not … Read more
A Way Through the (Concrete) Woods
Brush off the litter and kick through the papers They rush round and flitter by bricks and skyscrapers Serve canapés, canopies crowd out the sunshine Apartment blocks, apple trees loud dappled grapevine Dark undergrowth, underground misunderstood You touch in and … Read more
Sandbags and Gladrags
These are the banks that need to be propped up These the square miles that could do with some bailing out This is the high street where floating stocks are mopped up Defences that fail when they’re cut and left flailing … Read more
Haiku: Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
May look cuddly but Harms London says urban fox Of Boris Johnson
The Queen’s Horse
The Queen’s horse, Estimate, was stripped of its second place in the 2014 Gold Cup after testing positive for morphine … The Queen’s horse is on drugs! Who’d have thought? Bastions of privilege Now cheats at sport Broken Britain reaches … Read more
Sonnet to the Domestic Dog
Aw. Dontcha just love ’em? There is a fact scarce known in our society That of the world’s great treasury of creatures The one that manifests the most variety Of size and shape and other body features Is not a … Read more