Happy British Town
Diamond:
Walsall
West Midland town
A place of various trades
Known for its leather and metal
And a library housing great paintings
Walsall Football Club is popular
also the shopping parade
Archives smile on
Walsall.
poem by Joyce Hemsley
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Related quotes
The Barge and the Bride
I was having a meal, steak egg and chips
At the Humpty Dumpty Inn,
Next to the Curly-Wyrley Cut
Where the Curly bits begin,
When I heard a shout from a passing barge
‘You'd better duck! ' it said,
Then the bone from a monster ham flew up
And it hit me in the head!
I fell to the crazy paving, gathered
My wits, and looked around,
And there was Joe on the ‘Autumn Queen'
With his daughter, Maggie Browne,
He'd said something to stir her blood
And she'd thrown the bone at him,
But missed - and always the lucky one,
I'd caught it on the chin!
‘I'll get you back for this, ' I yelled,
And I shook my fist at her,
But she just laughed, and stuck her foot
On the prow, to bait my glare,
She slowly pulled her dress right up
To the thigh, and showed a leg,
‘If you can beat us to Walsall Lock
You can have me, we'll be wed! '
I gathered Flynn and we hitched the horse
And we set off in pursuit,
But our old Barge was slow, and Jessie
The horse was old, to boot,
We carried a hundred tons of coal
And the going would be slow,
But Maggie had always turned me down
In the past… I'd let her go!
She knew I only had eyes for her,
She'd played me like a fool,
She'd flirt, then gather her skirts and run,
It seemed to be the rule,
I knew she wanted away from Joe
So this could be my chance,
She'd never gone back on her word before,
Was she ripe for a new romance?
They'd left us a half a mile behind
As we got her under way,
This dirty Barge with the fancy name
That I'd christened ‘Mandalay',
But Flynn got Jessie to heave and strain
And we made four miles an hour,
If we could beat her to Walsall Lock
Then I'd have her in my power!
The towpath changed to the other side
At a tiny hump-backed bridge,
Flynn had to lead the horse across
Then down, and under the ledge,
We called it ‘threading the needle' then,
By keeping the rope attached,
We'd made a couple of hundred yards
On the Barge we wanted to catch.
The sun went down and the stars came out
I could see their lights ahead,
Their cabin gave out a cosy glow
As the thought rushed through my head,
That all was fair in love and war
I ran along the bank,
Then hidden in darkness up ahead
I unhitched their horse, called ‘Hank! '
Their Barge was dead in the water
When we passed them at nine o'clock,
By ten, I saw it ahead, the lights
And the gates of Walsall Lock,
Then out of the gloom I heard a sigh
As Maggie appeared in the dark,
And raised her face as the moon came up
So I kissed her, there by the Lock!
30 June 2012
(For our American readers, the ‘Curly-Wyrley
was the Wyrley and Essington Canal - ‘the Cut'
as we used to call canals, where I came from in
Birmingham, England. It had more twists and
turns than any canal in England, thus the
‘Curly-Wyrley'. During the Industrial Revolution
Canals were major transport hubs, valuable for the
Transport of coal from the midlands, and whole
families lived and eked out a living on these barges) .
poem by David Lewis Paget
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Open Book's Monologue Part 5: Welcome To The Library!
Welcome to the library! come one come all
Welcome to the library! come with your brethren on this wall
Welcome to the library! come all you books tattered or new
Welcome to the library! come tired and overdue
Yes welcome to the library the place where you're most mundane
Yes welcome to the library the place where you're to endure most pain
Yes welcome to the library where you'll sit unwanted
Yes welcome to the library where you'll sit haunted
Yes welcome to the library where everyone's just like you
Yes welcome to the library where we're all books too!
Yes welcome to the library where you can take comfort
Yes welcome to the library where In the fact you're no longer unique
Yes welcome to the library You're just pen marks ink
Departing the library? I think not, even if you get out we'll bring you back
Departing the library? Here you rot, but we'll dust you to ease your passing
Departing the library? Don't make me laugh, here you're black and white
Departing the library? Nobody argues on your behalf, look more amassing
Welcome to the library! A place of keeping and safety
Welcome to the library! Take your place you'll like it, just wait and see
Welcome to the library! New books don't mind the old they're disillusioned
Welcome to the library! You've sold your soul... but it's too late for you
so WELCOME
poem by David Knox
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Another Football Season
Another Football Season has just commenced having said so just the same
A lot of hype and excitement about a field game
For many from their life problems a relief of sorts
Suppose that's why the establishments created sports.
Some things do seem to change little from year to year
Of football fans discussing football one often does hear
They talk of their Club as if the Club they did own
'Tis from people like them that Football Clubs are grown.
They talk of team ratings and player stats and of last weekend's best on ground
And of who their team are due to play in the next round
And the forward with a goal for the taking who kicked a behind
Next week with the seconds a place he may not find.
Another Football Season commencing the barracker's wife
She does feel neglected but then such is life
He knows about Football and the words of the Club song
And his heart to the Club it does surely belong.
poem by Francis Duggan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
He Feels The Time Is Ripe
Where many do live for local renown
The ageing fringe dweller in the old country town
Has never played football with the local club
And always drinks on his own when he is in the pub.
Since he does not talk about the local club's latest loss or win
He remains an outsider and does not fit in
Though he has lived here for ten years as an outsider he remain
The status of a local he has yet to attain.
He feels a decade of his life enough to have spent here
He will move to the bigger town early next year
This not a town for one such as he an artist and a talented man
More suited to a footballer or a football fan.
In the old country town he does not have a friend
And his stay in the place is coming to an end
In his early to mid fifties his best days long gone
And he feels the time is ripe for him to move on.
poem by Francis Duggan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
This Is The Football Season
This is the football Season it is that time of year
When men in the pub talk football as they enjoy their beer
And look forward to September when one club will fly the winner's flag
The team that wins the Premiership gives their fans the right to brag.
Their wives nicknamed the footy widows their husbands at the football club
Or after work talking football with their mates down at the local pub
They take football so seriously 'tis their passion in life
The footy fan loves his football club as much as his children or his wife.
And if their team lose at the weekend they feel and look so sad
What's known as football addiction they seem to have it bad
They feel sad for their football team and the chance of four premiership points gone
But they cheer up and look forward to next weekend's game as the working week wears on.
This is the football Season football has gone to their head
And their football scarves and beanies they even wear to bed
About their team they feel so passionate as if to them it did belong
And 'tis with delight and pride in victory that they sing the club song.
poem by Francis Duggan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Tis Football
'Tis football is the big World game of today
Grid Iron the big game of the U S of A,
Rugby League, Rugby Union and Aussie Rules Football
And soccer the biggest World game of them all
Gaelic Football a field game the Irish do play
Football in it's many codes the big World game of today
Football supporters Worldwide their team and their club colours wear
And in International games in their National colours they even dye their hair
Some men love their football team as much as their parents, children or wives
Yes football is one of the great loves of their lives
When their team does win the club song they do sing
But a loss to their weekend great sadness does bring
All over the World many codes of football
And to each their own code the best game of all.
poem by Francis Duggan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
He Is Such A Joyful Winner
He is such a joyful winner but he does not like to lose
His favourite team won at the weekend so he went on the booze
He could not go to work today he feels fuzzy in the head
And nursing his hangover he lay at home in bed.
A football mad young person he surely loves the game
To be the Club's best barracker is his great claim to fame
At every goal his team kicks he whoops aloud in joy
The man in his late twenties at heart remains a boy.
His beanie in his Club Football colours to bed he even wear
His Club as important to him as his wife and children his type no longer rare
In the pub with his drinking mates their main topic is football
The great players and the winners and the losers of the weekend games they recall.
His team won at the weekend but he is in bed today
For too much celebrating his price he has to pay
He proudly wears the Club colours of his favourite football team
And every victory that they have good for his self esteem.
poem by Francis Duggan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Odd musings of an impatient heart
A shopping cart sits alongside the road
Its taunts me as its stands there alone
Just a piece of metal to passers by
But I see that metal and swallow a sigh
And now I've had more than I can take
Its eating me up and I begin to wish
That I could leave this place for a while
Or maybe forever that would be even better
Maybe I could meet someone who is new
And his words would be only the truth
Not lies compared to the thoughts in his head
But I see this shopping cart stranded alone
Just waiting for someone to come take it home
And i wonder of all the things that could make me sad
How a lone shopping cart had the effect that it had
poem by Kamryn Chew
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The Woman Five Doors Down
The woman five doors down tells me her son Ted is the best player in the school football team
And that one day he will play in an A.F.L. Grand Final and that more than once of late she's had this dream
Of watching him receive the Coleman medal for best on ground on football's biggest day
Watched by well over ninety thousand people who cheer him on with a loud hip hooray.
But locals who know of football and watched Ted play say he will never play at the top grade
That he won't go down Swanston Street in the back of a lorry
to loud applause in the Grand Final Parade
They say his mother greatly over rates him and that in his team he's just an average player
And that not one in his club will play A.F.L. football with good under age players they do not compare
Ted's mother believes her son will be a football hero and she seemed so convinced that she convinced me
But others who have seen him play say different and with her opinions they do not agree
They say that she will end up disappointed that her dreams for her son will not come true
That he won't make a career out of football another line of work he must pursue.
The woman five doors down tells me her son Ted will one day play in the famed M.C.G.
And be the hero of a great Grand Final in a game that will go down in history
And though others seem to think that she's only dreaming I hope her son will be a football great
And that she will applaud him in the Grand Final and the football fans his name will celebrate.
poem by Francis Duggan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The Town Poets
They have the ticket draw for the football club
But never a poets hour at the local pub
'Twould seem that cricket and football are the in thing
And horse racing at the back end of the Spring
But of course the Town poets have their own poetry night
On saturday evenings at the bowling club rooms their poems they recite
The local lovers of poetry their night out enjoy
To watch local favourite poets such as Rina, Kate and Roy
Reciting their poetry and strutting their stuff
It cannot be said of them not quite good enough
Quite talented poets the tops of the Town
Young poets in their thirties who dream of renown
And recite their poems in the rooms of the bowling club
Whilst it's a different scene at the Town's biggest pub.
poem by Francis Duggan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Frank Riordan
He and Neily Lehane in the late sixties they formed a Club and a Gaelic Football team
And the Football Club they christened Slanan Rovers and Cloghoula people back then had a dream
That they might one day be Duhallow Champions but to win in any grade quite hard to do
And though out of dreams great ideas have been born dreams are dreams and they don't always come true.
Frank Riordan was the President of Slanan Rovers and of the honour he felt very proud
And of the footballers who wore the Slanan jersey he spoke in glowing terms and sang their praises loud
And with help from the likes of Joe and Noel Buckley, Danny Healy and Dave Sheehan as well as many others who rallied around
A football club was thriving in Cloghoula and many willing helpers to be found.
The untimely death at a young age of Danny Healy a great blow to Cloghoula and it's football team
He was liked by the officials and players and by so many held in high esteem
But the likes of Frank Riordan and Neily Lehane worked all the harder their motto all for one and one for all
And Slanan Rovers survived for a decade and in Duhallow played Gaelic football.
Frank Riordan was the President of Slanan Rovers a Gaelic Football Club formed close to Millstreet Town
Till emigration and a dwindling population the curtain on them finally brought down
But then suppose nothing can last forever and Slanan Rovers like all had their day
And life goes on and time brings about changes and things are quiet now up Cloghoula way.
poem by Francis Duggan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Sameness They Only Embrace
The wealthiest person in the place far from financial renown
And the poorest one is very poor in the poor Country Town
Where everyone knows everyone your business not your own
And even family secrets by everyone else known.
This not a Town for migrants not many migrants live here
The locals do not embrace difference that's how it does appear
But of course there are exceptions though their type in the minority
Who speak out for the fair go in a place of cultural poverty.
Not a place of great commerce and few evolved thinkers live here
In the pubs they talk of work and football between spells of guzzling beer
They feel happy in their sameness it is difference they do fear
Though quite knowledgeable in football and their football heroes they revere.
A small rural Town in the country a few hours drive from anywhere
A place of a small population where many things in common they do share
The people with a fondness for sameness and sameness they only embrace
And if to them you have different interests amongst them you feel out of place.
poem by Francis Duggan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Just An Ordinary Fellow
His life revolves around work his mates and football
But his wife and children he seldom does talk of at all
Each evening after work he calls to the pub
Or else to the bar-room of the Football Club.
In his early to mid thirties he is well liked in the town
To have kicked five goals in the local Grand Final is his one claim to renown
And though his team did not win the flag he earned his local fame
With a best on ground display on a beaten side he made for himself a name.
His wife takes care of the children a boy of four and a girl of three
She is not well known in the town few as down to earth as she
So different from her husband she's never seen at the pub
And she is not a member of any local club.
He is a well liked character and in the town well known
And the local people say of him he is one of our own
Not a bad husband and father though better than him not hard to find
Just an ordinary fellow in his own way he is kind.
poem by Francis Duggan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
To Con Kelleher Of Aubane
One of the founder members of the Aubane Gaelic Football Team
And for them to win a Duhallow Championship had always been his dream
And though Aubane never won Duhallow and their Football Club no more
I still can visualize Con Kelleher cheering when their forwards broke to score.
I still see him on the side line and he urging Aubane on
As the Aubane men struggled bravely just to win this one for Con
And though his great dream died with him for dreams seldom come true
May he rest in peace Con Kelleher Aubane's truest of the true.
Along with Johnny Big Jack and Jimmy Mickey and Jimmy Buckley too
And Dan Twomey, Jackie Lane and Sonny Buckley some of the fellows who
Gave to Aubane a Gaelic Football Club in sixty four or five
Though such small clubs in rural Ireland quite unlikely to survive.
Con Kelleher's son Denis resurrected Aubane but it was a flickering flame
For they only lasted one or two years and they never won a game,
The curse of emigration of Aubane had taken toll
And the place without young people a place with an ageing soul.
May he rest in peace Con Kelleher the man who dared to dream
He was once the inspiration of the Aubane Football Team
For him and the club co founders the final bell has tolled
And the young men he once urged on are now looking grey and old.
poem by Francis Duggan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Young David The Under Fourteen
With the local football club he plays under fourteen
In their football colours the black, brown and green
He dreams in the A F L he will star one day
Against Australia's finest he will be picked to play.
Everytime I see young David he's with the egg shaped ball
Playing by himself or with other boys in the park for his age he is tall
His dream is to play as number one ruckman for his favourite team Geelong
Enjoying a great victory as he sings the Club song.
Most boys of his age have a wish or a dream
To win a gold medal or play with a top football team
But not all dreams do come true everyone can't know fame
Still it is nice to dream of great things just the same.
He is the top ruckboy in his football team
And as a player of promise he knows local esteem
But few good juvenile players into great players grow
And young David he still has a long way to go.
poem by Francis Duggan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Popular..
Many teenagers think
That being popular should be with the way you dress
The way you walk
The way you attract the boys
And the way you make the noise
Many teenagers think
That being popular is by the way you treat the others with full disrepute
Or by being very thin and cute
Many teenagers think
That being popular is all about the way you talk about the others
Or if you’re wearing a silky top or shoes made out of leather
Many teenagers think
That being popular is by despising the quiet ones and making fun of the weird
And also to show that they can never be scared or feared
Many teenagers think
That being popular is by showing of your new jeans and vest
And many teenagers think
That being popular is a way to prove that you are the finest and best.
poem by Marria Attar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
West End Girls
(....forever)
Sometimes youre better off dead
Theres gun in your hand and its pointing at your head
You think youre mad, too unstable
Kicking in chairs and knocking down tables
In a restaurant in a west end town
Call the police, theres a madman around
Running down underground to a dive bar
In a west end town
In a west end town, a dead end world
The east end boys and west end girls
In a west end town, a dead end world
The east end boys and west end girls
West end girls
Too many shadows, whispering voices
Faces on posters, too many choices
If, when, why, what?
How much have you got?
Have you got it, do you get it, if so, how often?
And which do you choose, a hard or soft option?
(how much do you need? )
In a west end town, a dead end world
The east end boys and west end girls
In a west end town, a dead end world
The east end boys and west end girls
West end girls
West end girls
(how much do you need? )
In a west end town, a dead end world
The east end boys and west end girls
Oooh west end town, a dead end world
East end boys, west end girls
West end girls
Youve got a heart of glass or a heart of stone
Just you wait till I get you home
Weve got no future, weve got no past
Here today, built to last
In every city, in every nation
From lake geneva to the finland station
(how far have you been? )
In a west end town, a dead end world
The east end boys and west end girls
A west end town, a dead end world
East end boys, west end girls
West end girls
West end girls
West end girls
(how far have you been? )
Girls
East end boys
And west end girls
And west end girls
And west end girls
East end boys
The west end girls
The west end boys
And west end girls
The west end girls
The west end boys
The west end girls
song performed by by Pet Shop Boys
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
A Man With A Mind Of His Own
His praises he does not need others to sing
He lives in his own way and he does his own thing
He has no desire to be popular and well known
One might say a man with a mind of his own
He does not play cricket or golf or football
In fact he's not interested in sports at all
Not a member of any group or of a social club
And he always drinks on his own when he is at the pub
With a primary school going son and daughter and a home loving wife
A man who is happy with his lot in life
A man with a mind of his own in an ordinary town
There's none he looks up to and on none he looks down
He's never harmed anyone and he lives in his own way
He's a true individual of him one might say.
poem by Francis Duggan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
On The Wayne Carey Scandal
The captain of the Kangaroos Football Club known for his dash and flair
And in the game of Australian rules a football millionaire
But he quit the Club in disgrace when news broke of his affair
With the wife of a team mate his future now elsewhere.
He breached the trust of his mate and was unfaithful to his own wife
And he must now try to save his marriage and get on with his life
He went back home to Wagga to hide away in shame
And many feel Wayne Carey might have played his last game
Of Australian Rules Football but without him the game will go on
And the North Melbourne club is still around though their ex captain from them gone
The Club's bigger than the individual is that's always been the case
And as good a player though he may be there's one to take his place.
He should have gone to a brothel for his bit on the side
Instead he had sex with his best mate's wife and their friendship he destroyed
The Roos fans had him on a pedestal and they called him the king
But like a silly person he did the silly thing.
My sympathies not with Carey or any sporting millionaire
My sympathies are with the poor and all people in despair
Like those brave souls who in leaky boats cross the dangerous southern seas
In search of a home they flee from war poor defenceless refugees.
Like those people interred in Woomera with numbers for their name
The Government of this great southern Land bring on their Country shame
They keep people behind barbed wire and their only crime is they
Have fled war lords and the bombs of foreign powers in their
Homelands far away.
The ex captain of the Kangaroos is back home in Wagga Wagga Town
And for his fall from grace he has himself to blame since he dragged himself down
And though I only wish him well my sympathies elsewhere
For my sympathies could never be with a disgraced football millionaire.
poem by Francis Duggan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
He Was A Big Hero
He has just turned fifty his fastest pace slow
He is not the man he was twenty years ago
When they used to toast him at the local pub
And he was the hero of the football club
But time it did not wait for him time it ticked on
And he can only talk now of his better days gone
When he was his football club's number 1 player
And he could run as fast as a wildborn hare
And though he has such good memories of the past
The Seasons came and went and time went so fast
Whilst yet not an old man his hair is quite gray
And clearly he has known a far better day
Two decades ago when his hair was dark brown
He was a big hero the toast of the town.
poem by Francis Duggan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!