Click the names of the poems to display them.

An index and cover notes



  • 1742 in the middle of March

    English Winter weather is rubbish. The sky is grey and it rains a lot. This is a poem about it. No, it does not rhyme, most of my poems don't.


  • Cakes and insects

    This is a poem about the relationship between nature and mankind and a planet that is being wrecked by human "sophistication". It covers quite a period of time from the big bang, the ice age, early man, nuclear energy and a post-greenhouse-apocolyptic era the stuff English Literature school teachers torture their students with.


  • Haiku for a newspaper critic

    This could apply to any form of professional critic. There is a very small proportion who serve a useful purpose, a "reviewer" if you like. Most of the others seem to be unnecessarily cruel and I'm not at all sure why.


  • Anna has eight lives left

    Provoked by a visit to an accident and emergency department in the local hospital.


  • Lonely as a cloud

    A poem to make you laugh...or go "ewwwww" (or "bah").


  • Messages from God

    A discussion of paranoid delusions and the relationship it seems to have with geniuses.


  • On one hand

    It's about male self-love. Sorry.


  • Throw myself to the train

    I read a story about a grandmother who threw herself in front of a train. A few months earlier her only daughter threw herself under a similar train at exactly the same spot. She was holding her two young children when she did it. The grandmother had not stopped crying until the day she killed herself. It still upsets me when I think about it.


  • Walking with my black friend

    A poem about living with depression and how it can also inspire creativity.


  • Not in my name

    A poem that rhymes (almost) about modern politicians, profiteering supermarkets and sleep-walking into an unwanted war carrying a pot belly.


  • Draw a line under it

    About the end of a relationship from the perspective of someone who did not really want it to end.


  • The award for best action movie goes to

    I had just watched a documentary about the Medellin where they followed a young father who lived and died by the gun leaving his children fatherless and his wife destitute.


  • Feeling Groovy

    A poem about ancient times of taking drugs and going to raves.


  • Saturday night and the drinks alright

    About how you feel when you got out on the beer on a Saturday night.


  • Broken

    This is a poem about a woman who has had a string of men let her down. We are outside looking in at her...


  • Tears of love

    A poem inspired by unwanted arranged marriages and honour killings.


  • Over


    A poem about the realisation that a love affair is over...for good.


  • Pub fight


    The reality TV of poems.


  • The last mistake


    Under a bridge, in khaki.


  • Your time will come


    Click here to hear Alex read this (mp3)
    Younger people always seem to moan about their life. It's only when you get older you realise that that time was pretty good...mostly.


  • Spice Rack


    How to change the world.


  • Mum and Dad


    If you're going to do it, turn the telly up so I can't hear


  • Tool of The Devil


    Prosody, Satan stylee


  • Advice to Jo's voice


    Written for a promise


  • Clapham


    Friendly spies. You know who you are.


  • Join us


    I wanted to write a poem with a complicated syntax: so I wrote one about vodka and ecstasy tablets.


  • Clown Loach


    Glass rectangle of fun, full of silly stripey floaty friends.


  • Little man Tiger fright


    When you're two and go to the zoo.


  • For flighty


    Written for a challenge.


  • Hoody


    Inspired by this photograph


  • Plaster


    Written on a train several years ago.


  • My shadow


    An unfinished poem about the potential for an evil shadow.


  • Sahara


    Saharan sand is weird, camels are very odd and the sun bakes like nothing you've even known before.


  • Welcome to my city


    A villanelle for Milton Keynes. Come here and fall in love.

    I like villanelles. This is my first attempt at one (and I'm not that happy with it) - I'm going to try a few more in future.


  • Sleeper


    Dedicated to my father.


  • Unfinished love


    Flicker, my love


  • Unexpected


    A love poem. For no-one in particular.


  • Chocolate Jesus


    Written about tendering your resignation to an overpaid consultant, when he least expects it.


  • Grim up North


    It was winter, I was unhappy, I knew I was splitting up with a girlfriend.


  • Fridge Poetry


    A friend bought me a hugh magnetic box of random poetic words. This is what resulted when I filled in the gaps.


  • The sound of the silk


    Passion drips from my fingertips. Read it fast...

  • Alternative Christmas


    Every year nearly 3000 people sleep rough over Christmas - and that's just in London. Think about that.


  • War Grave


    Isn't it odd that "civilised nations" create peace through war?


  • Free Thoughts


    Sometimes you should bark at the moon.


  • Styx


    Tattoo you.


  • Six times dead


    "A lot of your poems are a bit deep. Why don't you write something funny?"


  • Two far apart


    Even a small world can be too far to swim.


  • My mother never hugged me when I was a boy


    Click here to listen to Alex read this (Windows Media Player)
    This is not as serious as it sounds. Psychologists seem to blame the parents for everything. You have to stop somewhere and take responsibility for yourself.


  • Prayer for the lonely


    Lying in bed, insomniac, single. Hating it.


  • Fatty


    A poem about spousal abuse.


  • Knight in shining armour


    Despite that fight, you're going to call me!


  • Rhyme for the believers


    I was ill and trapped in a hospital waiting room with a pen and pad. I wrote this whilst I waited.


  • Not my baby


    Click here to hear Alex read this (mp3)
    Why would anyone risk freezing to death in the cargo hold of an aircraft?


  • Tornado Poem


    Written during a Tornado warning - hence the name