From the booklet In The Round.
Filmed by Mark Wood.
Scored by Memphis Glass.
Illustrated by Megan Metcalf.
Category: Updates
Lean In
Facilitated by Max Cooper’s Mesh community on Discord, Lean In is produced by Deadly Custard with words and vocals by Tony Wright.
Glastonbury 2023
Last weekend I somehow mustered up the courage to take part in the Poetry & Words tent’s Open Mic session, nervously reading Unedited Pride to a friendly, generous audience, despite the three hour sleep.
Cliftonville
Featured on BBC Radio Kent’s Upload on the 8th December 2022.
There’s shouting up Northdown Road.
‘Tomorrow morning. That’s it!’
Sat on a doorstep, horrorshow cold
they tangle in each other’s fits.
Passing pity gifts them a can.
Their cockles and quarrels warm.
Dawn points at the avenue home
arm in arm, unpicking the sworn.
The Westcliff Promenade
Coffee Shop Guy
Featured on BBC Radio Kent’s Upload on the 11th October 2022.
Electric smiles
meets ad land trade
in a plywood corner shop
where gossip’s made.
Over oat milk daydreams
he loops stage show lines
scrolling down messages
that keep him alive.
He does well for hearts
but less so in tips,
waiting on agent calls
and lucky coin flips.
The routine workers
envy his auto-charm
oblivious to the comfort
they hold in their palm.
Donut At Dawn
Featured on BBC Radio Kent’s Upload on the 4th October 2022.
A chorus of squawks descended
outside patio doors at sunrise
alerting the lightest sleeper
the day was about to break.
Grazing the brick and lawn
three seagulls shrieking loud
bombarded the doughy catch
a fourth found on the cliffs.
The kettle clicked and steamed
to butter knife on toast scratches
and clinks of cupboard searches
for a jar of something sweet.
The seabirds won that morning,
beak deep in a donut’s jam
pattering atop the treasure
of someone’s day trip fail.
Root Causes
Featured on BBC Radio Kent’s Upload on the 26th September 2022.
I do want to talk.
I’ve even got things to say.
Well, who hasn’t?
But I like to think there’s ideas
or at least opinions
lodged in my gut
tangled in a lifetime
of speech therapists
end of term school reports
and annual review meetings
cultivating the quiet gene
watering it by the bullet point
tightening its roots around
my tongue.
I can chat down my friends
like you’ve never seen
encasing them in the steel bars
of hip-hop history, Beatles trivia
centralist politics
trainer wish lists and
Beyonce worship.
Beyond their safe space
it’s another story.
A rubbish one with no arc
just a frustrating flat line
as constant as my heartbeat
put under the spotlight of
simple enquiries and courtesy
that the desire to answer just right,
exactly as I want, feel and believe
robs of any response at all.
You wouldn’t believe my interest.
I am completely and utterly
so presently in the room
that I’m inside your head obsessing
over what it wants to hear from
any contribution I make.
By the time anything’s crafted
time’s up. It’s too late.
Like Rihanna’s ninth studio album.
People’s respect for Novak Djokovic.
Compassionate Conservatism.
The new paywalled Black Star album.
Social media regulation.
I am as committed as I am quiet.
If we were all talking aloud
fast thinking on our feet
it’d be more confusing than the NFL
waiting for The Weeknd half-time show
with as many clear takeaways as
a near forty-year-old rap fan finds
in a Drill mixtape he’s as open to liking
as he is engineered to just not get.
Our nature is our nature.
An introvert’s presence is
a Kyrgios under-arm serve
Megan Thee Stallion twerk
Johnson lie, excuse, apology
and a cabinet minister’s self-interest.
Nature can not be denied or overcome.
It needs respecting and working with
as best as can be.
Jam at The Lock
Earlier this year the lovely We Are Raya kindly asked me to write something for their cool new zine, celebrating London summer. Their illustration of Camden quickly stirred up tons of formative memories. The zine is out now, with £1 from each sale supporting the vital work of Mind.
Poetry Peddler
Poetry Peddler is a collection of ditties celebrating specific places and moments shared with friends and family, delivered (in part) by bicycle and intended as brief distractions from all this lockdown malarkey. Designed by the unwavering Christian Storer, it can be read here or downloaded here (89MB) & here (9MB).
DISPATCH19
DISPATCH19 is a bunch of scribbles from the first half of last year, when I was jotting down monthly thoughts and feels before summer got going. Take a scroll.
MYZEL
Check out my pal Ed Harding’s magical blog.
DRAFT Magazine
The kind folk at literary magazine DRAFT have featured my recent-ish pamphlet in their Winter issue.
The Pickle Jar
One of the challenges I put on my ‘Before I’m Thirty’ list was to get a poetry pamphlet together. In the run up to my birthday I compiled lots of scribbles from my notebook and put a double sided sheet of words together. The aim was to hand it out to friends during my birthday celebrations. I was too embarrassed when it came to it so planned to wait until the end of the night, but by then I was too drunk and forgot. The sheets are now making their way out via post, are all tagged here.
Dad’s Crates
A few months back, my Dad gave me his old crates of 45” records.
Most mornings, I randomly choose one and pop it on for a listen before work.
There’s great stuff in there. It’s mainly all American soul music, but there’s a couple of random Rod Stewart and Phil Collins releases too. Those will be Mum’s.
A lot of the records are quite crackly now. Some of the worn sleeves have my parents’ initials on them as they’d get taken along to house parties.
On the week my Dad turns 60, I’ve begun this Tumblr to share the tunes I find and dance along to before starting my day.