A Metaphor
Are old men really trees? A poem from my 2024 book, Old Men
The Chime
A poem about my early gay life in Moseley, Birmingham
from the 2019 bookMy Tin Watermelon
Hat and Pan
from the 2016 book A Season in Eden
First prize in the Ver Poets Competition 2010
The Ballad of Captain Rigby
A 74-stanza ballad, with all the explicit detail of the case of Edward Rigby, convicted of attempted sodomy, 1698.Published as a pamphlet illustrated by Peter Forster
Pirate Hat
A meta-poem about being queer and performing The Ballad of Captain Rigby. Published in My Tin Watermelon (2019)
The Representatives
First prize in the Ledbury Competition, 2002. It appears in A Season in Eden (2016)
Mr Luczinski Takes a Tram
from the 2012 book Counting Eggs
Wall Street
About being in New York with my friend Carl Morse, this poem appeared in Be Prepared (1994) and in Counting Eggs (2012)
Dormouse Summer
A poem from my 2024 book, Old Men
Answers
What to do in King’s Cross when you’ve lost your cherry
from the 2019 book My Tin Watermelon
A Season in Eden
Title poem of the 2016 book A Season in Eden
Shoreditch Orchid
First prize in the Arvon International Poetry Competition 2008, with the Ted Hughes Environmental Poetry Prize.
The Pump
First prize in the TLS Poetry Competition 2010
Be Prepared
From 1990 when AIDS was raging, the title poem of the pamphlet Be Prepared
Routemasters
A poem about the old buses, published in Counting Eggs (2012)