Poetry

It goes on one at a time,
it starts when you care to act,
it starts when you do it again after they said no,
it starts when you say we and know who you mean,
and each day you mean one more.

Marge Piercy

Friday, 22 February 2019 16:29

where we got the importance of peas from

Written by Martin Hayes

in Poetry

where we got the importance of peas from by Martin Hayes there have always been jobs ever since we were able to stand upand grew handsthings to clean things to cook things to count things to watchthings to tie up like shoes and birthday presentsthings to ironlike shirts and petticoats…

Thursday, 21 February 2019 10:37

In praise of strangeness

Written by Fran Lock

in Poetry

Fran Lock writes in praise of a working-class poetics that revels in richness and strangeness, and includes a strange and rich poem taken from her forthcoming collection with Culture Matters, In Need of Saints. For women, then, poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence.…

Audre Lord Primark

Monday, 18 February 2019 11:42

Cuneiform

Written by Peter Clive

in Poetry

This poem is written in memory of Tom Leonard, 1948-2018, see here. Cuneiform by Peter Clive Everything lies in ruins. This Glasgowis an ancient ruined city by the Euphratesafter some rival, or barbarian invasion,or simply the passage of time has had its way,gap sites where ziggurats once stood, shardsscattered across…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Thursday, 14 February 2019 20:59

Pigeon problem

in Poetry

Written by Martin Hayes and Jamie Thrasivoulu

pigeon problem by Martin Hayes and Jamie Thrasivoulu I got a letter from the council inviting me to attend a meeting in the old youth clubthat has now been shut downand turned into a council officeto talk about the pigeon problem we get these pigeons you see around our flats…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Wednesday, 06 February 2019 09:48

For Jeremy Hardy

in Poetry

Written by Chris Norris

For Jeremy Hardy (1961-2019) by Christopher Norris The only way you can ever accuse a Conservative of hypocrisy is if they walk past a homeless person without kicking him in the face. It seems a shallow observation, but . . . . the Tory Conference are not an attractive lot,…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Wednesday, 30 January 2019 19:41

Shabbigentile

in Poetry

Written by Peter Raynard

Peter Raynard introduces Alan Morrison's new collection, Shabbigentile, available here In novels and films, plays even, there are state-of-the-nation portrayals aplenty. From Dickens to Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem, the rich and the poor are double acts on a political stage that is the United Kingdom. In poetry? Not so much. The…

Tan Raptures

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Thursday, 24 January 2019 10:18

Shayari: the progressive power of Urdu poetry

in Poetry

Written by Chris Norris

Shayari by Christopher Norris In a Delhi hockey stadium in December, about 100,000 people of various ages, genders, and classes flooded in for two days of poetry, debates, food and calligraphy sessions. It was Jashn-e-Rekhta, a three-day Urdu cultural festival, and its popularity reflects a wider appreciation for Urdu poetry.…

Portrait of Robert Burns (after Skirving)

Tuesday, 22 January 2019 20:01

Robert Burns the Democrat

Written by Norrie Paton

in Poetry

Download PDF Norrie Paton introduces this well-known pamphlet by J. R. Campbell, Robert Burns: The Democrat, which was first published in 1945, and has now been republished by the Communist Party of Britain. It is available above as a free downloadable pdf, with the permission of the CPB. I was…

Tuesday, 15 January 2019 14:18

Franz Magnitz Lied

Written by Kevin Higgins

in Poetry

The latest squib from Kevin Higgins follows these events and is a re-write/parody of the Horst-Wessel song, see here. Frank Magnitz Lied* after Horst Wessel by Kevin Higgins We button tight our leather breeches. We prance down Friedrichstrasse, everything clenched.Our comrade, Frank, laid gloriously low on the car-park concreteby what…

Thursday, 10 January 2019 21:42

Ach well, all livin language is sacred: the Glasgow voice of Tom Leonard

Written by Jim Aitken

in Poetry

Jim Aitken presents an appreciation of the language, politics and class anger of Tom Leonard, and Peter Clive has contributed a poem about him, placed at the end of Jim's essay. Today we think of literature as providing inexhaustible forms and of language as being incredibly versatile and varied –…

Wednesday, 05 December 2018 17:27

It's a new morning

Written by Marilyn Francis

in Poetry

It’s a new morning by Marilyn Francis It’s a new morningpay attentionto the pig’s headand its mouthful of fleshpay attentionto the workersin stolen trainersand nowhere to run. It’s a new morningover fieldsover orchardsand broke-back pickerspicking for next-to-nothingpay attentionto the babyripping up booksin his cot. It’s a new morningover Gotham Citya…