LEADERS - not followers

Sunday, December 30, 2012

OUT OF TUNE

For The Sunday Whirl: Pop, Stars, Ice, Flame, Strewn, Deliver, Tangent, Creek, Knead, Brood, Against, Point.

PENNY DROPS

surely
even ancient pop stars
must have memories...

perhaps of
a now ice cold old flame
...or two

strewn across the remains
of brains
that fail to deliver

just shoot
off at a tangent

minds addled
...no creek to paddle

no bread to knead
no brood to feed

...then suddenly

against all odds

...point taken...

Monday, December 24, 2012

NOT THE END OF THE WORLD

For The Sunday Whirl: Seemed, Insistent, Clench, Rapid, Burst,

Rustle, Rare, Hurl, Through, Spacious, Spasm, Enigma



MASTER, CHEF...?


Seemed insistent; 'There and Then'
Clench those fists and count to ten
Rapid burst of gaseous flare
Rustle up a steak, grilled rare
Hurl the plate through spacious hall
In a spasm, hit the wall
Stooge? Enigma? Who can say?
Don't rub him up the wrong way

Monday, December 17, 2012

2012 REVIEW


2012 – A YEAR TO REMEMBER

 

By now, everyone knows that 2012 was the year when ‘impossible’ things happened.

For a start, The Stone Roses famously said that the day they’d reform, would be the day Man City won the Premier League… didn’t they…?

Well, here’s a less well known, but equally inadvertent prophecy that follows a similar vein to theirs… And just in the same way that The Stone Roses are bigger than even The Beatles, this one is more serious even than… Football…!

Yes, believe it or not, I actually said… in public… and on more than one occasion… “The day I return to Manchester will be the day The Stone Roses reform…”

And just as everyone laughed… everyone who’s a red, that is… at the thought of City winning the Premier League, so everyone laughed at the thought of me returning to Manchester… Well, you know what I mean, some people giggled… a bit…

But we all know how truth is stranger than fiction… don’t we?

And still the laughter continued… and still the die-hard believers, not only continued to survive, but also continued to believe…

And then…

2012 happened… And believe it or not… City won the Premier League…! And the Stone Roses reformed…!

And I returned to Manchester…?

Yes! Believe it… it’s all true…!

And in Manchester, the crowds lined the streets, and cheered City, and everyone said “Nice one… about time…!”

And also in Manchester, the crowds filled Heaton Park… three nights running…! And they cheered The Stone Roses, and everyone said “Nice one… about time…!”

And also in Manchester, the crowds filled the lobby in Terminal 1 at Manchester Airport… and waited patiently for their planes to take them away on well-deserved holidays… while I got off my plane… in Terminal 2… smoked the last of my Khrong Thip cigarettes, and waited… impatiently… for the 105 bus…  to Moss Side, in Manchester. And I cheered when, at last, it arrived, and I alone said “Nice one… about… time…”

So… just to re-cap… We all know that 2012 saw City win the Premier League… We all know that 2012 saw The Stone Roses reform… thus fulfilling the prophecy that the two ‘impossible’ events would occur, (almost) simultaneously… And of course, now we all know that 2012 saw me return to Manchester…

But hang on a sec… did some of us forget something…?

On May 13, did anyone actually do what I remembered to do…? (In the Claremont Pub, on Claremont Road, Moss Side, Manchester 14) What I’d so vehemently and vocally promised to do, for more than 30 years…?

Here’s what I did… I looked back… admittedly not over my shoulder, to the person sat in the stand, behind me… as the song indicates… because I wasn’t actually at the match, at the Etihad Stadium, was I…? I forgot we’d moved from Maine Road… honest… ;) so I was just sat in the pub, watching it on the telly. But did anyone, anyone at all, apart from me, actually “…look back and say ‘There’s no-one quite like John Bond, he has helped us on our way’…?”

If you didn’t… and I’m pretty sure most of you have forgotten the promise you all made, amid the euphoria of getting to the 1981 Centenary FA Cup Final… there’s no need to worry. We’re still Champions, and there’s still (at least) the whole of the rest of the season to go, in which to clear your conscience…

So, next time you’re at the match… preferably during a quiet period (if there are any), just stand up, and ‘look back’… wistfully, if you can (if you know what it means…!)… over your shoulder… to the person sat in the stand behind you… and say “There’s no-one quite like John Bond, he has helped us on our way”… Just like you always said you would… ‘one day… when we’re Champions’… And even if for no other reason, it’s well worth the funny looks you get…!

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

DISLOCATION

For Sunday Whirl: Unless, Pride, Beauty, Wrong, Faces, Silent, Pawn, Sorry, Life, Fire, Bust, Find, Belong

NOT LEAST

Unless I'm much mistaken:

Pride is no thing of beauty
It makes all the wrong faces...

A silent approach won't help
Why be a pawn in the game...?

Feeling sorry for yourself
is no way to live your life...

With fire burning in your eyes
bust a gut until you find
the place you truly belong

Monday, November 5, 2012

STRANGER THINGS

For Sunday Whirl: Rotten, Wrath, Depths, Scramble, Flees,
Swelling, Enable, Charm, Key, Shore, Upbeat, Tumultuous

SHIPSHAPE

Sailors rotten misfortune
incurs wrath of ocean depths
Order given to scramble
Crew flees ever swelling surf

Enable charm offensive
from captain who holds the key
Reaches safety of the shore
Disembarks in upbeat mood

Tumultuous reception

Monday, October 29, 2012

STITCHED UP

For Sunday Whirl: Bound, Within, We, Think, Way, Damaged, Men, Women, Power, Wish, Single, Thread
And Haiku Heights: Witch

TREAT OR TRICK ?

Bound within this spell
could we think of any way
to mend damaged hearts

Could men and women
transfer power from a wish
to a single thread

Or would we deploy
a darker shade of magic
the craft of witches

Monday, October 22, 2012

IN A WHIRL

For Sunday Whirl
This weeks words are:
Shelter, Cafe, Job, Happening, Guide,
Score, Fern, Face, Sturdy, Peanuts,
Handle, Recommend, Cabinet

JOBSEARCH

Seeking shelter from the rain
Enter internet cafe

Need a job - what's happening?
Online guide will know the score

"Twelve thousand species of fern
Require replant to face south
Steady graft for sturdy guy
Permanent post"... Pays peanuts!

Yours if you can handle it
Wouldn't recommend it though...

File that in your cabinet!

Monday, October 15, 2012

STILL STANDING

For Sunday Whirl

This weeks words are:
Thunder, Vowed, Inherit, Deeper, Stand, Umbrella,
Become, Joined, Shifts, Excuses, Childhood, Light.

It's been a long time...

LIGHT SOURCE

Under a dark thunder cloud
we both vowed to inherit
a deeper sense of merit
letting us stand together
under the same umbrella
to become joined at the hip
working continuous shifts
to un-make old excuses
renewing childhood truces
... and at last seeing the light..