Paper round!

Poetics: For the love of the broadsheet

today @ #dversepoetrypub we are waxing lyrically about newspaper.

only one wat to go for me back to the Monday evenings of my early teenage years delivering the local rag.

A cut and paste poem, I created for a poetry workshop (David Bowie influenced).

Paper round.
#poetry, #dversepoetspub,
#childhood,

Monday, bloody Monday,
Legs aching, mind reeling,
School bags haphazardly dumped,
Uniform into the wash, calls mum,
Out to face the weather with numb fingers.

Monday evening blues,
Legs aching, heart sinking,
Paper round bags collected,
Walking shoes rubbing,
Out to face the grumpy old gits with barking dogs.

Monday evening niggles,
Legs aching, belly grumbling,
Paper bag empty and returned,
First wages burning holes in pocket,
Newspaper print, all over hands.

Monday evening joy,
Wash them hands! dinners waiting,
Siblings crashing in from their evening rounds,
Homework before bath, before warmth of bed,
Home to face the crazy and the love of my family.
© 21/01/2025 rog leach

Leake Street

dVerse Poetics — Pilgrimage, Wandering, and Walkabout

I have taken a pilgrimage see the Leake street Tunnels under London’s Waterloo rail station that has been on my bucket list since I first heard about them. one of a few places where graffiti art can be legally sprayed here in the UK. the photos below where taken on my visit. they are just a few of those I took.

it has been legal for street artists to leave their mark here since 2008. when Banksy organised an event there. #Banksy , #leakestreet .

https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=59926010a06e5131JmltdHM9MTcxNTA0MDAwMCZpZ3VpZD0wZDRkNzBhMy0wNzhiLTYwZmQtMjU3Ny02MjVmMDY1NjYxNTYmaW5zaWQ9NTIzNg&ptn=3&ver=2&hsh=3&fclid=0d4d70a3-078b-60fd-2577-625f06566156&psq=leake+street+tunnel+history&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly9lbi53aWtpcGVkaWEub3JnL3dpa2kvTGVha2VfU3RyZWV0&ntb=1

so for tonight’s #dversepoetspub poetics prompt from Lisa. I have used a line from the poem Pilgrimage by Natasha Trethewey. “here the river changed it’s course”.

Leake street.

The tunnels they do beacon,
Painted walls, painted ceilings,
Painted floors, painted railings.

Here the river changed course,
Away from repression of expression,
To its acceptance of the street artist’s ability.

A pilgrimage of art,
To view an ever-changing 300m canvas,
A bastion to art since, 
#Banksy festival 2008.

Take a wander, take a meander,
Through the tunnel of colour,
Stop for a bite, Stop for a pint,
Soak up the atmosphere.
Smell the spray paint, love the artwork. 

© 07/05/2024 rog leach

Winters water

Frozen INN!
#quarille180, #dversepoetspub, #frozenpoem.

Steel hull frozen solid,
Awaiting springs warm thaw,
Wanting water’s sloshing sounds.
 
Steel hull frozen solid,
My heart awaiting thaw.

My home frozen INN,
Steel hull awaiting thaw.

Spring arrives bringing company,
Water’s sloshing sounds signifies.
 
Thawing of winter’s isolation,
Canal community awakening again.

© 24/07/2023 rog leach

Quadrille #180: Pouring Out Our Poems

Hasta La Vista

hi all at #dversepoetpub sorry about not making the live online meet ups they keep clashing with work and in person poetry groups i am a part off.

Hasta la vista,
 (see you later).

Here’s to classy farewells,
More see you later,
Auf wiedersehen,
Hasta la vista,
Ciao (chow).

New beginnings call,
Keeping fond memories alive,
Memories of fun,
Memories of frolicking,
Hasta la vista childhood.

© 11/12/2022 rog leach

uninvited dictatorship.

(thump) is unspoken and is a knock with the shenanigans stick.

#Wordatthewharf, #openmicpoems.

Thank you, Sarah for a good prompt to drop this one into here @ #dversepoets pub.

i have added the line “no inkling of the way-no notion.” to a poem written when yet another person became the English prime minister without being elected. i have performed this at an open mic and a spoken word event since. but only added the Thomas Hood line this evening.

(thump) HEY YOU the uninvited,

Political leaders taking the government,

(thump) Killing our democracy,

(thump) money grabbers, (thump) your scruples dead,

Corrupt politicians of greedy denomination. (thump)

Selling out our schools (thump) for profit,

Selling out our NHS (thump) for friends’ profit,

Starving our children, (thump)

Freezing our parents, (thump)

Putting us on the streets, (thump)

Under funding our police. (thump)

Letting crime go unpunished. (thump)

DID we populace invite you, (thump)

To sell us out,

NO,

You the politicians are,

Uninvited (thump x2)

So, we no longer have,

A blank future.

As the dictators have.

*“No inkling of the way – no notion.”

*From Thomas hood’s poem November added 15/11/2022