Johnny Briggs - d. February 28th 2021

Here’s to the chancer’s chancer,

to the barrow born but on the up,

at the bar, grinning, pocket full 

of knickers, waving a tenner

- I’ll get these - large Scotch,

and one for yourself, darlin’.

Read about Johnny Briggs here

Lawrence Ferlinghetti - d. February 22nd 2021

The word on your streets

is of the streets. Your night

is made of words. Your beat

is made of night. Your art

is made of beats. The lights

of your city dim, then bright.

Read about Lawrence Ferlinghetti here

U-Roy - d. February 17th 2021

You woke my town,

to tell your version 

of the version,

tell the dread people

that even in death

you were 

the rightful ruler,

the toast of heaven.

Read about U-Roy here

Sydney Divine - d. February 13th 2021

I pulled on my tasselled jaiket,

half-Lanarkshire, half-Hawaiian,

saw it was a rhinestone short.

But what's this in the pocket?

a bag of tiny bubbles, and a chord

playing this is no time for crying.

Read about Sydney Devine here

Mary Wilson - d. February 8th 2021

I dream of you, girl, free now, 

walking barefoot on gravel, 

automatically bringing the

sunshine, and ooh, the thrill, 

the joy this boy got from you.

Read about Mary Wilson here

Christopher Plummer - d. February 5th 2021

I was afraid the world

was disappearing fast,

yet here you are again

to greet me, bless 

my land, bring music 

back into this house.

Read about Christopher Plummer

‘Captain Tom’ Moore - d. February 2nd 2021

I met an old soldier going down, 

talisman for a wounded country,

walking from memory, medals

pricking his flesh like shrapnel,

his worth the sum of all his duty,

striding a final battlefield at dawn.

Read about Captain Tom here

Hal Holbrook - d. January 23rd 2021

I met you in the dark

of an underground lot,

a product of the night,

acting more with shadow

than most could with light.

Read about Hal Holbrook here

Cicely Tyson - d. January 28th 2021

Aunt Jemima is dead,

helped off the screen

and into history, read

wrong but remade right

and acted as truth, seen

and heard, like new light.

Read about Cicely Tyson here

Phil Spector - d. January 16th 2021

I tried to keep it going -

that loving feeling - through

the screaming madnesses,

breached wall of your sound.

You deserve less than these

words, and yet much more.

Read about Phil Spector here

Barbara Shelley - d. January 4th 2021

How do you destroy a legend?

Not by the driven stake,

sword-lop or bloodsuck.

O Mistress of the macabre, 

what’s a nice girl like you

doing in a film like this?

Read about Barbara Shelley here

Sylvain Sylvain - d. January 13th 2021

That's my kind of trash;

riffing tough, cheap

and only a little nasty,

one foot in platforms,

the other in stilettos,

veins full of raw junk.

Read about Sylvain Sylvain here

Michael Apted - d. January 7th 2021

Give me the child until they 

are seven; I will show the way

of things - the people you can

and cannot become, the man 

in the boy, the woman in the girl,

enough for this or any world.

Read about Michael Apted here

Colin Bell - d. January 5th 2021

From the Ballet on Ice

and quagmires of 1972

exits Nijinsky of the North,

blond sovereign of time,

King of the bluest memory.

Read about Colin Bell here

Gerry Marsden - d. January 3rd 2021

This is the last record,

so sing to us of rivers,

torn hearts and storms.

Another dance is over

- safe home, everyone -

but still the night rings

to a sweet silver song.

Read about Gerry Marsden here

John Le Carré - d. December 13th 2020

Reading you was my Fall:

before, glam spies in cars; 

after, a drab inner world,

lamplit by career shadows,

pieces on a board, trading

stock and scalps, made real

by the pen of true Control.

Charley Pride - d. December 12th 2020

After you they undrew 

the lines, wedged open

the Opry doors, spun 

both sides of the disc.

This morning an angel

told me you cannot keep 

a song from being sung.

Barbara Windsor - d. December 10th 2020

Spying, Doctor, 

Camping, Again Doctor, 

Henry, Matron, Abroad, 

Girls, Dick, Giggling,

Flirting, Disrobing, 

Pouting, Bitching, 

Barring, Shaaaahting, 

Struggling, Smiling, 

Carrying On.

Read about Barbara Windsor here

Doug Scott - d. December 7th 2020

When I face my own ascent

I pray I'll see you up ahead,

tapping in pitons, belaying  

the rope, pointing out 

the favourable pitch, then

reaching down to haul me

up those final few feet.

Read about Doug Scott here

Chuck Yeager - d. December 7th 2020

A peaceful glide home?

Shoulda gone in '47,

smouldering 

in a burnt-out bullet, 

barrel-rolled or broken 

by unrecoverable spin,  

demon grinning gleefully 

as you hammer 

on those titanium gates.

Read about Chuck Yeager here