Here’s one about my holiday:

Jean-Claude Gendarme

So kiss me quick and squeeze a can
the summer’s here now make a plan.
Decide on continental sands
load kiddies, cousins, dogs and gran
into an ancient caravan
plus camping gas and tinny pans
then loudly praise your air con fans
look forward to the autobahns
but I beg you beware one man
it’s said he roams the [...]

A Triolet for John Prescott

Raise your banners for Baron Prezza
from shop floor steward to upper bench.
Tell your mother, tell your bezza
to doth their caps for Baron Prezza:
velvet robes meets pickled eggs there
I say the man’s an uber mench!
Bend your knee to Baron Prezza
from shop floor steward to upper bench.

A Sonnet for Radio

I think of you [...]

I’ve been listening to a fair bit of Noel Coward of late - here’s the result:

It’s Splendid Being The Infidel (a song for a musical)

They say the world is heading for a meltdown.
They tell me change is coming and it must.
They say that we’re not free
but if you’re asking me
I’d say that most of us [...]

Why shouldn’t your every waking moment be filled with entertainment?

Cometh the hour, cometh the pad
Six hundred quid, they must be mad
but queues of geeks snake down the street
to buy their slice of techno chic.
They take their VISAs to the limit
to fill the unforgiving minute
a brave new world imagined there:
you take your telly everywhere.

The Perils [...]

With respect to Mr Dylan. And also to Mr Stickley, who suggested six years ago this might be a good thing to write and then failed to do so.

Aisle Sixteen (Revisited)

Well, Tarquin the banker was pinstriped and neat
coked up to his eyeballs and chewing his cheek
when dreaming of methods to catch out the meek
an underling [...]

I was back on Saturday Live this week. I’m normally there every 6 weeks or so but Kate Fox was trapped out in Spain due to the volcanic ash cloud so they asked me to fill in.

I think it was my favourite of all the shows I’ve done over the past two years. The studio [...]

On Saturday I got to go up to the top floor of Broadcasting House and film my Saturday Live poems. Like with Saturday Live itself this is not be at my best. I wrote the poems the day before, I hadn’t learned them and it was 10am. But here you go …

What a great weekend. Manchester Albert Club gig was immense, many thanks to those who came down.

On Saturday I did my regular bit on Saturday Live. Here are my poems. The first is fairly self-explanatory. The second was in response to a story we did. You can read more on it here. That said, it [...]

I was honoured (yes, HONOURED) to be be invited by the mighty Mercy to contribute to their e-zine - Now I’m Talking Here. Each issue is based on a character from 12 Angry Men, which, if you haven’t seen it, is an immensely powerful and wonderfully acted film. The issue I’m in is based on [...]

I had my first sticky moment on Saturday Live today. My first poem was rejected with 15 minutes to go before the start of the programme. They’d get sued apparently. And reading back over my poem, I think they’re right:

Five Million

Five million for The Journey
Five million for my stories
Five million for the strategies
That stupefied the [...]