Paul O'Grady - d. March 28th 2023

I saw your act; kitsch trollop

shaking a vial of acid, voice 

like an old Corporation bus,

yet hints of the queen beneath,

a sideboard stuffed with mercy,

a single lily in a cracked vase.

Read about Paul O'Grady here

Jacqueline Gold - d. March 16th 2023

She cries your name in the night,

rouged with triumph, satisfaction,

and the rustle of silk. The lights

flicker and die; a guiltless frisson

of adventure in the dark, a sight

of love and its infinite vibrations.

Read about Jacqueline Gold here

Dick Fosbury - d. March 12th 2023

Your run-up to Heaven’s gate
is a curve new to physics.
An improbable contortion
lifts you on pistons of muscle,
and everything we thought
we knew is inverted, the bar
raised to the height of an idea.

Read about Dick Fosbury here

Bill Tidy - d. March 11th 2023

A cartoon is history in a silly disguise,
drawn by a nib that sharpens with use.
But what truth to draw for us? Perhaps
that there is a place called North; that
when it is gone there will still be tripe.

Read about Bill Tidy here

Margaret Lake ('Mystic Meg') - d. March 9th 2023

The world unfolds without need

of augury; numbers are just numbers.

Yours come up today, or they don’t,

and fate is just the dark proxy for

all the things we didn’t see coming.

Read about Mystic Meg here

Chaim Topol - d. March 8th 2023

I don't remember you growing older,

ossified as you were in a time, place, 

character, ageless milkman of the spirit.

Your song was a blessing and a bruising, 

a song of pogrom and lamentation.

Here's to you, and to life; l'chaim.

Read about Chaim Topol here

Tom Sizemore - d. March 3rd 2023

Sometimes the action is the juice;
the heat of the world gets turned high
and the illusion of the role shatters.
The bad character becomes bad news,
unable to play the part of a decent guy
in the only scenes that really matter.

Read about Tom Sizemore here

Wayne Shorter - d. March 2nd 2023

In jazz, there are sidemen,
and there are sidemen.
There are those who blow
and those who know;
the score, and the way
the weather will go.

Read about Wayne Shorter here