Ian works with public text/ poetry in multi platforms. performed widely including Glastonbury and Jakarta. Editor of Verses United, the poetry of football & his last collection was ‘the singing ducks of amiens’.
In his spare time he likes to watch Columbo.
Both poems are about connections: with our past, music, icons and each other. I chose these writings because they explore the human condition of obsession and love and the complexities of our lives.
ELVIS IN THE COMMUNITY
(It is illegal to mow the lawn dressed as Elvis in Switzerland)
Are you lonesome tonight?
Barry is married to Beverley
they met at the local disco
and honeymooned in Magaluf.
He always reads The Sun
and cleans the car on a Sunday,
he drives to B&Q like a maniac;
he’s more competitive than Schumacher.
He meets the lads on a Friday night
and she meets the lasses.
Every Saturday night they say nowt to each other.
Are you lonesome tonight?
Barry has a hobby
he’s borderline fanatic.
His room is filled with records and books
and memorabilia of the King.
He remortgaged the house to visit Graceland.
He spent the no win, no fee whiplash compensation on a cosmetic pursed-lip,
the paunch around his waist came naturally.
And now he talks with a Geordie-Tennessee droll.
On karaoke nights he howls like a hound dog thinks he has vocal style.
He christened his first-born
Aaron Elvis Barry Carter.
The vicar had a turned up dog collar
and side-burns as thick as the Black forest.
Barry’s got a tattoo it runs the length of his back, there is a dedication to Presley
but the ink ran out for Beverley.
Are you lonesome tonight?
CHANGES (after David Bowie)
She could have come from the page of fairy tale in her red hoodie: the colour of passion.
And like a scene from Farenheit
we sit by a real fire and watch embers of old letters, I needed to let go.
And with light brushstrokes she caresses my clean-shaven jaw line.
And she delivered a kiss as long as Molly Bloom’s.
And leaving behind the candy talk
we de-clutter our feelings.
And we are hopeful, talky and peaceful.
And in between the Bowie tracks we repeat to one another in our minds, in the hush of the morning.
Molly Bloom is a fictional character from James Joyce’s Ulysses
Farenheit 451 is a novel by Ray Bradbury