Table of Contents
Dad, the Donkey's on Fire (1994)
Kake Yourself Comfortable 3
Why We Need Libraries 4
Pit Closure as Art 5
Lilian's Poem 7
Death's Feet 8
Husband and Wife 9
Tempest Avenue 9
Deaths from Ice Cream 10
Ted Hughes is Elvis Presley 11
Visit 14
Early Train, Rain, Wombwell Station 16
Poem Occasioned by the High Incidence of Suicide amongst the Unemployed 17
Song for Roof Building 18
The Force of His Storm Knocked Me from My Stool 19
Moon Rivet: Lives of the Great Comedians 20
Henry's Skeleton, George's Leg 21
Jesus Died from Eating Curtains 23
Stone, I Presume 24
Point of Transit 25
Still Life Life 26
Realism (Nothing is Ever Finished) 28
Dad, the Donkey's on Fire 29
Stories
Poetry Matters 30
The Route to Work 36
Whatever Happened to Freddie Galloway? 40
Grisp the Wheel at Ten Past Two 45
There's Always a Man in a Cardigan 51
Just Like Ours Except for the Ducks 56
On the Closure of Cadeby Colliery 59
Title (Northumberland June 11th/12th 1987) 60
Slow Thaw 62
In Fear of Absttaction 63
Brief Encounter 64
The Day after Armistice Day 65
The Mirror in the Toilet 66
Essential Engineering Works 67
The er Barnsley Seascapes
1 Goldthorpe er Seascape 68
2 Ml Seascape near Hoyland: er it's a rough day 69
3 Er Darfield Seascape 69
4 Little Houghton Seascape er like 69
5 An Old Seadog er Speaks 70
6 Er from a Learned Paper about Seascapes 70
7 Seaview Video, Barnsley: Er Latest Offers 71
8 Seascape Could er Be Anywhere around here 71
The Christmas Tree's Press Conference 72
The Grimness 73
Modernism: The Umbrella Girl Forgets What She is Talking About 76
Burst Pipe with A Level' Notes 77
Halifax! 78
Rotherham 80
Snails on the West Shore, August 1991 81
Three Boring Miles on the Exercise Bike 83
Smoke 84
Bosnia Festival: Your Full Guide by our Arts Reporter 85
The 70 86
Frog Dream 87
Dear Mr McMillan 88
A Cliché Defines the Moment in a Poem about Language and Oppression 90
Mining Town 91
A Discussion on Modern Poetry with Example: Postman Pat's Suicide Note 92
Bat Wars 93
Sonny Boy Williamson is Trying to Cook a Rabbit in a Kettle 95
The Scream on Stockpott Station 96
My Caravan's Got a Bontempi Organ in it 97
The Ice House 98
Epic, I Mean an Epic Feel to it 99
Grace 100
Top Row/Low Row, Woolley Colliery Village 101
George and Joe on a Bench: Wind-Symmetry 102
Brisk Coffee 103
Sunset Ower Barnsley 104
The Next Poem I Write 105
Postmodernist Summer Nights in the Dearne Valley 105
The Literary Life 106
The Continuity Girl has Died 108
Great Dogs of History 109
The Veins in my Neck 110
Beethoven was Deaf, You Know 111
In a West Yorkshire Bus Queue 113
November 1963 in a Scotland of the Mind 114
The Making of the English Working Class 115
From I Found This Shirt (1998)
I'd Better Not 119
My Dog 120
Self Portrait 121
Tuesdays and Wednesdays 121
Home Support 122
Poem Containing Several R.E.M. Song Titles 123
Endless Shedness 124
Poem Is a City 125
Happiness on the First Train from Barnsley to Huddersfield 126
Free Improvising Musician Drops Frying Pan 127
From Perfect Catch (2000)
Malvern Link, Early Morning 131
Branwell Brontë is Reincarnated as a Vest 131
Lumb Bank, 1978 132
A House of Bricks 132
Body and Bone: The Fat Man in the Bath 133
Slip of a Man 135
The Mexico Poems 143
This Lake Used to be Frozen: Lamps (2011)
It's Only a Novelty Coronation Street Alarm Clock 155
Tom Jones 155
A Miniature 157
It's the 4th of July! 157
Sleeper 158
Old Age 159
Norman Stopped Me on the Street 160
Not a Real Bear, But a Bear Nevertheless 160
Walk 162
The Evening of the Day Pavarotti Died 166
Drift 167
Did You Ask for a Decaff off that Other Lady? 169
Yorkshire Pudding Rules 170
A Series of Novels 171
Black Cloud Over My House Sometime in the 1960s 172
The Inevitability of Snow 172
The Idea of Loneliness in the Little Chef, Uttoxeter 174
Platform 2 175
Aubade/Nocturne 175
The Poet Speaks 176
Unrealismus/Realismus 177
Ah've Soiled Ma Breeks! (2012)
Come and Sit Over Here with Those Ideas of Yours 181
Ah've Soiled Ma Breeks! 182
Anchored 184
A Scientific Explanation of the Mystery of the Passing of Time 184
Tony Bought a Guitar and Got a Parking Fine 185
The Language of Philosophical Enquiry 186
Early Morning Stroll. Deep Woods. Just Seen My Mate Who Spent His Early Years in a Children's Home. 186
Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ Seen in Yorkshire Pudding 187
Ian McMillan's Unfishnished Poem 188
T'invisible Man O' Methley 189
Torch Passes By 189
A Black Dog in Four Legs 190
Dream of a Tree in a Spanish Graveyard from a Small House in the South Yorkshire Coalfield 193
M' Writing Table 194
Playing Chess with Uncle Charlie 194
Plain, Cheese & Onion, Salt & Vinegar 196
Fantasia on a Theme of Uncle Charlie 196
Uncle Jack's Rubber Tarts, Boxing Day 1964 197
The Sun Comes Up 198
A Mo-ment 198
My Achilles, He'll 199
Keith's Mankini: A Three-Line Work in Progress 200
Jazz Peas (2014)
Me and Dave and Thelonious Monk Waiting for the 14 Bus 203
An Archaeologist Finds an Umbrella 204
Annual Report 204
Approaching those 'Ruddy' Belisha Beacons Near the Post Office Again 205
As Thoughs 206
Elegy, Eulogy, Eelegy 209
Figs 209
Language and Politics 210
Language and Politics 2: Maps and Dog Ventriloquism Combined in the Same Tale 212
Language and Politics 3: Complexity and Simplicity, a Debate 213
My Kidnapping 215
Norman Came to My House 216
Oboe 217
Pumped; to be Accompanied by Pumping Music 218
Railway Ballad: Broken Rail 218
Rhapsody, in a Jumpy Way, on the Word 'Unravel' 220
The Indoor Glider: a Miniatute 221
The New Punctuation 222
We're Doing the Quick Crossword 222
An Old Map 223
New & Uncollected Poems
From 'Grafters'
A Group of Group Portrait Questions 227
A Light Breeze Carries the Stink into My Backyard 227
Glimpse 228
How Small, How Very Far Away 229
The Hero Explains 229
Framed 230
Quartet 231
He Finished Up Down Nine-Clog Pit 232
This Wooden Flag 234
Cat Hills 235
Rhapsody on Boat Names and Some Observations on the Weather 236
From the Garden, with the Mushroom 237
To Fold the Evening Star 238
Notes & Acknowledgements 241
Index of Titles 242
