Len Goodman - d. April 22nd 2023

The last dance is announced;
it is a gentleman’s excuse-me,
a ritual of foot and physique,
led by an uncle with sequins
for eyes, smiling while he sells
the sausage and the sizzle.

Read about Len Goodman here

Barry Humphries - d. April 22nd 2023

They say you had more tricks than a
Qantas hostie, knew how to skewer
your own people from both ends, so
was this just another turn - Stiff Barry?
Madge plays an intro; no greetings, no,
just a faint whiff of Scotch, and gladioli. 

Read about Barry Humphries here

Mark Stewart - d. April 21st 2023

There is a D-Notice on this poem;
a surveillance dirge we can only un-sing,
a conspiracy of noise, atonal, un-pop.
I picture you ranting alone, un-dancing
in a place beyond good and evil.

Read about Mark Stewart here

Murray Melvin - d. April 14th 2023

On a quiet stage beyond the
bombsites and back-to-backs
we acted out a dream; a dream
of belonging, not to a tribe
but to each other. The dream
is gone, but the act was real.

Read about Murray Melvin here

Mary Quant - d. April 13th 2023

From austerity came geometry,
raising the hemline of the world,
clothing the kinetics of desire
in PVC and polka-dot, cut like
op-art to a new shape: the future.

Read about Mary Quant here

Craig Breedlove - d. April 4th 2023

Such reckless science, jerry-built
from courage; titanium chimera,
part coffin, part lightning bolt,
driven by a driven man, America
expressed as a booming bullet
fired at a wall of air, the last barrier.

Read about Craig Breedlove here

Seymour Stein - d. April 2nd 2023

They will argue that true fame

will find its own glorious few

even in the dark, that talent

needs no agent. The challenge

is to hear what bursts through,

trust your ears, call it by name. 

Read about Seymour Stein here

Ryichi Sakamoto - d. March 28th 2023

That sound you made; sharp
as a thousand knives, strange
as the language of transistors,
a kind of pop beyond cosmic,
surfing on a wave of sound
from Tokyo to tomorrow.

Read about Ryuichi Sakamoto here

Ken Buchanan - d. April 1st 2023

Toe-to-toe is the only way;
jewels of sweat scattering
ten rows into the crowd.
From Leith to the Garden,
a bell rings battle’s end for
gentleman and destroyer.

Read about Ken Buchanan here