Poems

In Memoriam Philip Larkin is the first poem, I ever published, in The Spectator, way back in the 80s.

Jack and Jill is a poem I once published many, many years ago in a magazine called Envoi.

Prospects of a Nuclear War in Pagham was inspired by a road sign.  Pagham is a sleepy town in Sussex.  The poem was published many years ago in Rialto magazine.

Church Going is a tribute to Philip Larkin, in the centenary of his birth.  It is based on his own poem with the same name.

Paul Harrow Turns His Back On A Life of Sex is a collection of poetry I put together a while ago.  It wasn't published as a collection, although I did have it printed as a private pamphlet.  The title poem won a competition (and £400!).

I thought I would start posting later poems, so Everyone's a Sailor is very recent.

Mid Life Crisis Mark 2 may not even be a poem. Perhaps it is a prose poem, which sounds like a round square.  It is the result of sitting down and writing.  Well, that can't be bad!

How Have You Been Feeling? is a prosy poem with one or two humorous moments (in my view).

The Call is in response to trying to ring up companies for help.

Death of a Philosopher is a poem about someone I know, a philosopher, who died in 2024.