for years I had been told
fans had broken turnstiles
that they were drunk
stole from dead fans
I had been told
they didn’t have tickets
that they smelt of alcohol
that everyone was dead by 3.15
I had been told
that the police and coroner
only dealt with facts
and always told the truth
yesterday I found out
everything I had been told
was a lie everything
© Jim Bennett
Hillsborough report: 41 of the 96 dead 'had potential to survive'
Author of 67 books and proprietor of Poetry Kit, Jim tours throughout the year giving reading and performances of his poetry and songs.
Showing posts with label Jim Bennett. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jim Bennett. Show all posts
Friday, 21 September 2012
Tuesday, 14 August 2012
the Olympic legacy
he ran down for the paper
his pyjama top reminded him
of the Jamaica running kit
the right colour anyway
he bought his paper
ran back along the road
and into his house
breathing heavily in the hallway
he checked his watch
brilliant he said
to no one in particular
taking out a fag
he worked it out
if he took off
the few minutes chat
to the guy who sold him the paper
and the time he stopped
to wipe his foot after
running through dog muck
and having to slow to nod to the nun
then he would have given
Bolt a run for his money
yes he thought bring on Rio
I’ll be ready
© Jim Bennett
Can Britain convert gold into legacy?
Author of 67 books and proprietor of Poetry Kit, Jim tours throughout the year giving reading and performances of his poetry and songs.
his pyjama top reminded him
of the Jamaica running kit
the right colour anyway
he bought his paper
ran back along the road
and into his house
breathing heavily in the hallway
he checked his watch
brilliant he said
to no one in particular
taking out a fag
he worked it out
if he took off
the few minutes chat
to the guy who sold him the paper
and the time he stopped
to wipe his foot after
running through dog muck
and having to slow to nod to the nun
then he would have given
Bolt a run for his money
yes he thought bring on Rio
I’ll be ready
© Jim Bennett
Can Britain convert gold into legacy?
Author of 67 books and proprietor of Poetry Kit, Jim tours throughout the year giving reading and performances of his poetry and songs.
Wednesday, 29 February 2012
Hillsborough
they refuse to be buried
or mourned into the past
they walk among us
in the eyes of their families
demanding Justice
those innocent fans
interred with lies
the time codes of death
changed to suit
a version of events
while those with a duty to care
and who didn't care
about anything
but protecting themselves
live on
© Jim Bennett
PC Debra Martin 'coerced to change Hillsborough notes'
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Author of 67 books and proprietor of Poetry Kit, Jim tours throughout the year giving reading and performances of his poetry and songs.
or mourned into the past
they walk among us
in the eyes of their families
demanding Justice
those innocent fans
interred with lies
the time codes of death
changed to suit
a version of events
while those with a duty to care
and who didn't care
about anything
but protecting themselves
live on
© Jim Bennett
PC Debra Martin 'coerced to change Hillsborough notes'
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Author of 67 books and proprietor of Poetry Kit, Jim tours throughout the year giving reading and performances of his poetry and songs.
Sunday, 19 February 2012
Sunday Supplement
As well as our usual round up of the week's poems, today we have some quick stats about Poetry24's first year and two poems below which relate to what we are trying to do here.
We've had a record number of submissions this week - we gave up trying to choose just one on Whitney Houston and published those by Stuart Nunn, Kat Mortenson and Charlene Langfur. Syria was also leading the news, inspiring moving poems from Lavinia Kumar and E R Olsen. Joshua Baumgarten's 'This Belief' ripped up the rules to bring us a very individual response to the news at a given moment, and our birthday week wouldn't have been complete without something from our most-published poet Philip Challinor - who didn't disappoint with the bitter pill of his 'Palliative Care'.
But the highlight of our week was a beautiful poem created in film by Anthony Baverstock from lines 'found' in these pages in our first year. If you haven't yet seen 'Dawn: Year One' watch it now!
We hope you continue to enjoy and take part in Poetry24 in its second year. (Check out our new Publicity page for ways you can help spread the word.) Thanks so much for your continued support.
Clare (& Martin)
.... And now two supplemental poems. The first is a poem inspired by a news item ... about a poem ... inspired by a news item - but with subtle personal overtones. The second is a moving obituary to a poet which we think says something about what poets are trying to do every time they pick up a pen.
Pinned back to the wall
Love carried more than a blade
The night you were murdered
Carrying a stench that seeped
All over the tabloids
And Sky News
But only touched on the truth.
Love that was ripped out in a beat
All the way from Well Hall Road
And Dickson Road
Before concluding near Rochester Way
Over a curtain of two stab wounds
And a mis-match of half lies.
Justice that briefly replaced hope
Crawling across the cold pavement
Of Shooters Hill and Westhorne Avenue
Before been regulated to
A barely heard rumour turned cold case
That still stank years and years later.
One version of Justice
Shivering through a mist
Of vague words and burst veins
While another’s is left to rot
Immobile in her fear,
Because it wasn’t high profile enough.
Pinned back against the wall
Like a turn of a phrase
Caught in the middle
Between a trigger and a blade
Simply because it wasn’t
High profile enough.
© Andy N
'Stephen Lawrence' by Carol Ann Duffy
'Embarrassingly Bad'
Andy N has a website, a blog and pages on facebook, myspace and youtube.
His current band is 'A Means to an End' and he has a project with Amanda Silbernagel.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
poem for a dead poet
I saw him mouth silent words
closing eyes to read some internal
aid memoir and draw the next line
from the air before he laid it out
and after this silent litany
he watched his audience waited
for trust waited for them to reach
the same place he occupied
this poem he said is for a dead poet
he placed each word carefully
in the air then watched them drift off
his mouth synchronised to each breath
the poem built itself from nothing
started to identify its subject its narrative
pooled ideas like blood used words
as hammer blows cancer pain death
his eyes strained to focus
his face twisted into an effigy
someone who used to look like him
as he fought to control the words
to contain the emotion to beat
the poem into submission once more
to entertain and not reveal the true subject
the one only he knew only he knew
© Jim Bennett
Tributes to poet Geoff Stevens following his death at 69
Author of 67 books and proprietor of Poetry Kit, Jim tours throughout the year giving reading and performances of his poetry and songs.
We've had a record number of submissions this week - we gave up trying to choose just one on Whitney Houston and published those by Stuart Nunn, Kat Mortenson and Charlene Langfur. Syria was also leading the news, inspiring moving poems from Lavinia Kumar and E R Olsen. Joshua Baumgarten's 'This Belief' ripped up the rules to bring us a very individual response to the news at a given moment, and our birthday week wouldn't have been complete without something from our most-published poet Philip Challinor - who didn't disappoint with the bitter pill of his 'Palliative Care'.
But the highlight of our week was a beautiful poem created in film by Anthony Baverstock from lines 'found' in these pages in our first year. If you haven't yet seen 'Dawn: Year One' watch it now!
Poetry24 (in a nutshell)
313 poems in 365 days by 113 poets from 12 countries
We hope you continue to enjoy and take part in Poetry24 in its second year. (Check out our new Publicity page for ways you can help spread the word.) Thanks so much for your continued support.
Clare (& Martin)
.... And now two supplemental poems. The first is a poem inspired by a news item ... about a poem ... inspired by a news item - but with subtle personal overtones. The second is a moving obituary to a poet which we think says something about what poets are trying to do every time they pick up a pen.
Pinned back to the wall
Love carried more than a blade
The night you were murdered
Carrying a stench that seeped
All over the tabloids
And Sky News
But only touched on the truth.
Love that was ripped out in a beat
All the way from Well Hall Road
And Dickson Road
Before concluding near Rochester Way
Over a curtain of two stab wounds
And a mis-match of half lies.
Justice that briefly replaced hope
Crawling across the cold pavement
Of Shooters Hill and Westhorne Avenue
Before been regulated to
A barely heard rumour turned cold case
That still stank years and years later.
One version of Justice
Shivering through a mist
Of vague words and burst veins
While another’s is left to rot
Immobile in her fear,
Because it wasn’t high profile enough.
Pinned back against the wall
Like a turn of a phrase
Caught in the middle
Between a trigger and a blade
Simply because it wasn’t
High profile enough.
© Andy N
'Stephen Lawrence' by Carol Ann Duffy
'Embarrassingly Bad'
Andy N has a website, a blog and pages on facebook, myspace and youtube.
His current band is 'A Means to an End' and he has a project with Amanda Silbernagel.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
poem for a dead poet
I saw him mouth silent words
closing eyes to read some internal
aid memoir and draw the next line
from the air before he laid it out
and after this silent litany
he watched his audience waited
for trust waited for them to reach
the same place he occupied
this poem he said is for a dead poet
he placed each word carefully
in the air then watched them drift off
his mouth synchronised to each breath
the poem built itself from nothing
started to identify its subject its narrative
pooled ideas like blood used words
as hammer blows cancer pain death
his eyes strained to focus
his face twisted into an effigy
someone who used to look like him
as he fought to control the words
to contain the emotion to beat
the poem into submission once more
to entertain and not reveal the true subject
the one only he knew only he knew
© Jim Bennett
Tributes to poet Geoff Stevens following his death at 69
Author of 67 books and proprietor of Poetry Kit, Jim tours throughout the year giving reading and performances of his poetry and songs.
Thursday, 6 October 2011
the protester
whenever there is a protest
he will be there with a placard
it doesn’t matter what the protest is about
the words are always red on a white background
a picture of a quill
it started out years ago saying things like
“ban the bomb – legalise poetry”
“equality for women workers – legalise poetry”
“end apartheid – legalise poetry”
a little while ago it was
“say no to war – legalise poetry”
and recently in London
“free education – legalise poetry”
he argued that poetry was sort of illegal
people got very upset at
aiding and abetting distorted syntax
GBH on grammar
and they talk about things like
prose cut up into short lines
punctuation crimes against humanity
he wanted to know what they were frightened of
was it poetry that could be read and understood
by everyone
and maybe people having fun with it?
when he started out protesting
it was to have been “legalise pot”
but because he felt himself to be
a subversive
he added a few letters
and liked it so much he kept at
his one man campaign
he thought he might try taking it
to Bahrain
see how it went down there
he even started to prepare a placard
“free Ayat al-Ghormezi - legalise poetry”
for the first time
it seemed appropriate
BBC World Service interview with Ayat al Ghormezi
Ayat al-Ghormezi blogs HERE.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Author of 67 books and proprietor of Poetry Kit. Jim tours throughout the year giving reading and performances of his poetry and songs.
Editor's note: Today is National Poetry Day in the UK
he will be there with a placard
it doesn’t matter what the protest is about
the words are always red on a white background
a picture of a quill
it started out years ago saying things like
“ban the bomb – legalise poetry”
“equality for women workers – legalise poetry”
“end apartheid – legalise poetry”
a little while ago it was
“say no to war – legalise poetry”
and recently in London
“free education – legalise poetry”
he argued that poetry was sort of illegal
people got very upset at
aiding and abetting distorted syntax
GBH on grammar
and they talk about things like
prose cut up into short lines
punctuation crimes against humanity
he wanted to know what they were frightened of
was it poetry that could be read and understood
by everyone
and maybe people having fun with it?
when he started out protesting
it was to have been “legalise pot”
but because he felt himself to be
a subversive
he added a few letters
and liked it so much he kept at
his one man campaign
he thought he might try taking it
to Bahrain
see how it went down there
he even started to prepare a placard
“free Ayat al-Ghormezi - legalise poetry”
for the first time
it seemed appropriate
© Jim Bennett
BBC World Service interview with Ayat al Ghormezi
Ayat al-Ghormezi blogs HERE.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Author of 67 books and proprietor of Poetry Kit. Jim tours throughout the year giving reading and performances of his poetry and songs.
Editor's note: Today is National Poetry Day in the UK
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