Lester Piggott - d. May 29th 2022

Your peers knew better the shape 

of your backside than your face, 

kept like a well-tended grave.

This was the long and short of it all;

a rustle of silks, the rumbling pall

of hooves, the going good, the fall.

Read about Lester Piggott here

Andy Fletcher - d. May 26th 2022

You came up from the underground

to bring a new disease. 

Your faith and devotion was to sound

and the spell it weaves.

The studio mute, the tape is rewound;

all silent when you leave.

Read about Andy Fletcher here

Ray Liotta - d. May 26th 2022

As far back as I remember

I always loved a gangster

movie, their abrupt horror,

the unconscionable banter

in the coldness of murder,

such appalling splendour.

Read about Ray Liotta here

Colin Cantwell - d. May 21st 2022

You pre-imagined the life beyond this, 

conceptualised in deathless detail

the gleaming craft that would take us 

there, sketched faraway galaxies, 

developed from imagination to hand,

hand to screen, screen to eye.

Read about Colin Cantwell here

Vangelis Papathanassíou - d. May 17th 2022

You are hoisted on the shoulders

of replicants and runners, carried

from the studio of this world, 

your body now a sweep of strings, 

the lush chords of a grand heaven.

Read about Vangelis here

Cynthia ‘Plaster Caster’ Albritton - d. April 21st 2022

I heard of your little death,

how they cast your stiff form

to preserve the likeness of 

that final excitement, joy 

at leaving hard evidence,

something solid at the end.

Read about Cynthia Plaster Caster here

Kay Mellor - d. May 15th 2022

Here’s to golden stories, 

the kind where people do 

what people do, 

say what people say

in voice and vernacular

as familiar as furniture.

Read about Kay Mellor here

Denis Waterman - d. May 8th 2022

Met an old snout in Mario’s caff
Mile End blag’s off he said, tell your 

guvnor - mark of respect for your DS. 

Slipped him a score for his trouble.

Sweet. Condolences to his missus.

Read about Dennis Waterman here

Régine Zylberberg - d. May 1st 2022

I tried in vain to get into the clubs

from Juan-les-Pins to Jupiter -

Sorry sir,  too scruffy, too dumb, 

too normal. I saw the Queen 

of the Night, movie star on each arm,

laughing as she exited by a side door.

Read about Régine Zylberberg