-
Recent Posts
- Ophelia
- Pantomimes
- There is a light. How poetry is helping us find hope this week in Manchester
- Love goes toward love as schoolboys from their books, But love from love, toward school with heavy looks.
- For the love of Love On The Dole: A love-letter to Walter Greenwood, via my granddad. And Morrissey
Archives
- October 2017
- September 2017
- May 2017
- July 2016
- March 2016
- December 2015
- October 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- April 2014
- February 2014
- December 2013
- October 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- May 2012
- April 2012
- August 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
Categories
Meta
Twitter Reel
- RT @ChipLitFest: Thanks to our wonderful sponsors @HWFisherUK, we can offer free entry to our short story competition for those writers on… 21 hours ago
- Another interesting chat here from @GreatMancPod and @Gemma_Whiteley on the arts and the community - well worth a l… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 22 hours ago
- @annmrose Precisely. 23 hours ago
- @annmrose Plus, Mocking-bird is from a child’s perspective - so maybe it adds to that simplicity, maybe with older… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 1 day ago
- @annmrose I don’t mean to be facetious there by the way - I just think it depends on the context. Taking those phra… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 1 day ago
Tag Archives: manchester
Ophelia
Ophelia We wake to find her Fingerprints, Saharan dust On window sills, on Rooftops, Schoolyards, Graves, On driveways and motorways, On pylons and leaves, On our fingertips, Faint as ash. As if to say: See, there is a land Out … Continue reading
There is a light. How poetry is helping us find hope this week in Manchester
I teach English in an inner-city Manchester school. It’s been a tough week. Monday night’s terrorist attack created a backdrop of sirens, questions and uncertainty. Our school is as diverse as the wider city, we have a palette of pupils from … Continue reading
Posted in Thoughts
Tagged Education, lemn sissay, manchester, mike garry, poetry, teaching, Tony Walsh
1 Comment
For the love of Love On The Dole: A love-letter to Walter Greenwood, via my granddad. And Morrissey
I’m a firm believer that books wait for you. Like fishing in reverse, they let you pick them, pull them down from the shelf, let you start them, let you in, sometimes let you devour them in a single sitting; … Continue reading
Posted in Thoughts
Tagged austerity, books, family, literature, love on the dole, manchester, morrissey, politics, reading, review, Salford, walter greenwood
Leave a comment
Fantastico: In Praise of Longfella and Project-Based Learning
Poetry, as I explained to the class, was never a real thing for me, as a schoolkid. For us, poets didn’t exist. They lived only in dusty books on that shelf of the library that nobody could reach. So, to … Continue reading
Posted in Thoughts, Words
Tagged Art, creative writing, creativity, Education, longfella, manchester, pedagogy, poetry, project based learning, teaching poetry
Leave a comment
Calcium
Today is Manchester Day. This is a poem I wrote about the way the city stays with you, even (as in this case) as you leave it, it will draw you back.
Posted in Thoughts, Words
Tagged calcium, england, ian o'brien poetry, identity, manchester, manchester day, midas in reverse, poetry
Leave a comment
There Is A Light
Just listened to Mike Garry talking about the Smiths on Radio 4 (check out his blog godisamanc.wordpress.com.) Got me thinking about the first time I heard the Smiths. Just left this response on Mike’s page: I don’t know what I’m … Continue reading
Posted in Thoughts
Tagged godisamanc, Ian O'Brien, manchester, memories, middleton, mike garry, music, smithdom, Smiths, teenage angst
Leave a comment
Where You Are (In Memoriam: Robert Stuart 1924-2012)
When my granddad died, I wanted to write something for him, but couldn’t. The words wouldn’t come. When we took the train to Newcastle to scatter his ashes in the Tyne, I wanted to say something, but couldn’t. This … Continue reading
Posted in Thoughts, Words
Tagged family, gorton, granddad, grief, Ian O'Brien, ian o'brien poet, loss, manchester, memories, midasinreverse, newcastle, poem, poet, poetry, robert stuart, where you are
5 Comments
Sunlight (Eston Street): A poem for Keith Bennett
For the post-war, post-1960s, post-modern, post-Tony Wilson, post-Smiths, post-everything generation, Manchester’s past is a projection, a kind of grim nostalgia, stitched together in song lyrics and cult films, stills of Coronation Street and Rita Tushingham. The early 1960s is black … Continue reading
“Powerpoints for the People!” Quiet Loner and Tony Walsh at the People’s History Museum, Manchester, 18/05/2013
What passed in the few hours on Saturday afternoon may have been the politest revolution in musical history. Matt Hill (Quiet Loner) launches his album ‘Greedy Musicians’, a biting political assault on the coalition government not with a rally or … Continue reading
Posted in Thoughts
Tagged Greedy Magicians, manchester, music, People's History Museum, poetry, politics, Quiet Loner, review, Salford, Tony Walsh
2 Comments
When Thatcher Died
Growing up in the 1980s, it was difficult not to be affected by Thatcher’s destructive policies, especially in the North. ‘Thatcher, Milk Snatcher’ was a rhyme we seemed to know before we could speak. Not that we were indoctrinated, we … Continue reading
Posted in Thoughts, Words
Tagged Ian O'Brien, manchester, poem, poetry, Thatcher, When Thatcher Died
1 Comment