Author: cliffyates

Two new poems on Anthropocene

cliffyates3 Comments

Great to have new work published on Anthropocene online poetry journal. Thanks to Charlie Baylis. It was satisfying, I have to say, to have Bob Dylan and the Screwfix catalogue appear in the one poem. ‘Fish Street’ is a companion poem to ‘Awareness Through Movement’ which appeared a while ago on Litter magazine, edited by Alan Baker. Both poems are set in St Ives. ‘Psychology’ is the first poem to be published in an ongoing sequence.

‘Sky Blues Bus’ poem on BBC Radio 3

cliffyates5 Comments

My poem ‘Sky Blues Bus’ will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 Words and Music on 3rd October 2021, a feature on Coventry and Transport as part of the BBC Contains Strong Language Festival. ‘Sky Blues Bus’ is published in Birmingham Canal Navigation (Knives Forks & Spoons) and was commissioned by the Centre for Travel Writing Studies at Nottingham Trent University. Warm thanks to everyone involved.

‘Sky Blues Bus’ is written partly ‘in the voice of’ the bus which carried Coventry City Football team through Coventry following their historic victory over Tottenham Hotspur in the 1987 FA Cup final. It also references the bombing of Coventry in 1940 during the second world war. I wrote the poem after encountering the bus in the brilliant Coventry Transport Museum.