War, Occupation and Mental Health
A personal view published in Asylum magazine, Summer 2024.
Issues and campaigns: War and Terror
No to terror. No to war. Unity is strength. Solidarity forever.
Slava!
Slava! is back on the 19th, bringing together the finest performing poets, Ukrainian poetry, comedy and music to show solidarity and raise funds for WithUkraine.org – a humanitarian charity, directing help where most needed. Join me and the marvellous Dan March at … Read more
Slava! Poetry and pints for Ukraine
Janine and others doing their poetry thing to raise funds for #WithUkraine. Free entry. Collection, bookstall and proceeds from the bar go in the bucket too.
Provocation
She provoked him. She said she was leaving him. She’s been looking at other guys. He had to show her. She had to know She isn’t a person in her own right, She’s part of him. She is the buffer … Read more
Fucking Tanks
A guest poem from Spoaken Word Lewes regular open mic’er Fred The Ninja. Thanks Fred. === I owe my very existence to Russian fucking tanks. If my dad had not run from them 66 years ago in Hungary, … Read more
Solidarity with Ukraine!
Artillery rounds and a barrage of shellfire It looks and it sounds like extending an empire Bombing and shooting civilians slain Expansionist Putin invading Ukraine Threatening nukes and rain hell from the skies Dismissing rebukes with chauvinist lies Conscripts uprooting … Read more
Run
Her cover drive and how she ran are now haram under the rule of the Taliban Can she stay in? For sure she can She can’t be out without a man in ancient, new Afghanistan She’d tackle assumptions and she’d … Read more
Video: Ribbons of Scarlet
Ribbons of Scarlet
– a golden shovel after ‘Scarlet Ribbons’, for Cush At the peal of the bell, they don’t tell you there’s a field that not everyone comes back from. The survivor’s been fearing that he’ll never stop hearing the gunfire even … Read more
Triolet: Don’t Mention the War
They never talked about the war, the ones who fought and struggled through it Why speak of memories so sore? They never talked about the war but football, politics and more Unless the young asked them to do it, they … Read more
Triolet: War Is Over
She didn’t say the war was won Instead she said the war was ended Fall silent now, the bomb and gun She didn’t say the war was won There’s future-building to be done Place and people to be mended She … Read more
Remembering 1945
I spoke with my dad (pictured) about his memories of the 1945 general election … 75 years ago when I was seven, I experienced the first of 22 general elections in my life. My father, Albert Booth, was born in … Read more
The first Remembrance Day
Also published in Solidarity newspaper. One hundred years ago, on the very first Remembrance Day, 11 November 1919, the Daily Herald, a socialist newspaper, published this article on its front page. It was one year after the Armistice, and Prime … Read more
1919 – Whose Peace?
Also published on the Workers’ Liberty website here. 11 November 1918 had been merely an armistice. The war would not be officially over until peace terms had been negotiated. The victorious Allied countries began six months of talks in … Read more
1919 – Militarists and Mutineers
Also published on the Workers’ Liberty website. The ‘Great War’ was finally over. When it had begun in August 1914, the British government predicted that it would be won by Christmas, but it had dragged on for four more years, … Read more
The Joker and the Trump
Boris Johnson nominates the President of the United States He says the Nobel Prize for Peace should go to Donald Trump But that joker has been played before No satire in it any more Irony died, doesn’t he see? when … Read more
The Pope’s Prayer
In response to the news that the Pope wants to change the words of the Lord’s Prayer … Oppressed people Who art in Myanmar Rohingya be thy name The soldiers come And killing is done Of Muslims As it … Read more
Hope is Safe
I have a friend from my Manchester days whose daughter Hope lives there … Hope’s mum tweets That Hope is safe Not at the Arena Not a fan Too busy sweating Her exams Hope texted mum at six twenty-nine Hope … Read more
Crazed Loner
R.I.P. Jo Cox MP Crazed loner Stay-at-homer Helpline phoner Hummer and groaner Window licker Timebomb ticker Deranged and estranged He’s a stabber, a shooter Overly obsessed with his computer He’s nothing to do with us, you see No link to … Read more
Warming His Coals
My entry to the Stanley Spencer Poetry Competition run by the Cookham Festival, celebrating its 50th anniversary and Spencer’s 125th. It is about Spencer’s ‘Shipbuilding’ paintings. Frank was the Furnace Man, earnest and warm The firebox of Shipbuilding, heat … Read more