Jerry Lee Lewis - d. October 28th 2022

I have one foot up on the keyboard

as I type this. I am pure trouble, bad 

to my Louisiana bones, and when 

I’m gone all that will be left is a shot

of whisky, a glissando and a loaded gun.

Read about Jerry Lee Lewis here

James McDivitt - d. October 13th 2022

The surly bonds of earth slip away,

and stars breathe themselves awake.

Quietly the best version of a man,

you step outside the capsule of yourself 

and swim out into all that darkness.

Read about James McDivitt here

Austin Stoker - d. October 18th 2022

Bravery is at its sternest

in its quietest moments;

to be it or to play it, both

light up the unlit scene.

I saw you laugh off the cholo;

now, it would be a privilege

if you'd walk outside with me.

Read about Austin Stoker here

Wolfgang Petersen - d. August 12th 2022

Alarm! Alarm! Spannung entdeckt 
Richtung eins neun acht eins. 
Bring uns runter, Chief, runter 
unter der Oberfläche der Geschichte 
dann wieder runter, tiefer, bis 
wir halten keinen druck mehr aus.

Alarm! Alarm! Tension discovered
direction one nine eight one.
Take us down, chief, down
beneath the surface of history
then back down, deeper, until
we can't take any more pressure. 

Read about Wolfgang Petersen

Stu Allan - d. September 22nd 2022

You set my young city on fire,
busted a new sound straight 
from warehouse to your house 
to my house, brought the noise 
from Brooklyn to Moss Side
Chicago to Salford to the phuture.

Read about Stu Allan here

Robbie Coltrane - d. October 14th 2022

Life is tragicomedy, played
not for laughs but for depth
and breadth. Keep it smart,
tender, real, heart weighed
against mind even in death.
Be big, always, as is your art.

Read about Robbie Coltrane here

Angela Lansbury - d. October 11th 2022

It's all there on exposed stock;

sand running through a glass, 

a different face on each grain

as they pass through the neck 

that separates the golden age 

from the age of not believing. 

Read about Angela Lansbury here

Kitten Natividad - d. September 24th 2022

Into the last valley, honey;

a place for trash pussycats,

ultra-vivid and super-fixated,

shaking what mama gave you

and the surgeons enhanced,

faking it in tassels and a pout. 

Read about Kitten Natividad here

 

Loretta Lynn - d. October 4th 2022

Life hands round some bitter pills;

a black lung and a blue voice,

three slices of poor for one of rich,

but here's a number you may know;

we call it heartache. Are you woman

enough to sing it through to the end?

Read about Loretta Lynn here

Coolio - d. September 28th 2022

Not many gangstas in my hood,

and yet you gave this boy a taste

of paradise - like hell with beats.

I take a look at my life and realise

there's not much left, though I’d be

dead as a shadow on your streets.

Read about Coolio here

Hilary Mantel - d. September 22nd 2022

I drink to literature as an ear,

eavesdropping in the dark.

I drink to literature as an eye,

sharpening what is vague.

I drink to literature as a hand,

overpainting the faded.

I drink to the past as a present.

Read about Hilary Mantel here

Eddie Butler - d. September 15th 2022

This will be the final phase;

no time now for rolling maul,

but a cool head, a tap-and-go,

Yet here's a voice to take the ball,

sure as the Pontypool Front Row

or the whistle blown at end of play.

Read about Eddie Butler here

Jean-Luc Godard - d. September 13th 2022

This is a story of narrative

told out of order, a camera 

for a pen. The story cannot 

breathe for itself; it requires

the breath of an outsider, 

an eye that edits as it shoots, 

a new vocabulary of telling.

Ceci est une histoire de narration

dit dans le mauvais ordre, une caméra

pour un stylo. L'histoire ne peut

respirer pour lui-même; cela requiert

le souffle d'un étranger,

un œil qui édite en même temps qu'il tire,

un nouveau vocabulaire de la narration.

Read about Jean-Luc Godard here

Gwyneth Powell - d. September 8th 2022

A small body is lain 

across a catafalque 

of school-desks. 

Chalk like incense settles 

on every surface. 

A school bell tolls the hours. 

Term is over, 

but I cannot bring myself

to go home.

Read about Gwyneth Powell here

Frank Drake - d. September 2nd 2022

N = R* x fp x ne x fl x fi x fc x L

R∗ = the rate of geniuses in the population

fp = the fraction of those with something to say

ne = the average number of minds that care

fl = the fraction of those that understand

fi = the fraction of those that appreciate

fc = the fraction of those that celebrate

L = the length of a poem that does so

Read about Frank Drake here

Mark Shreeve - d. August 31st 2022

We are all circuitry.

Pass voltage through us;

do we not oscillate?

In the end, everything 

is analogue, and death 

just a higher harmonic.

Read about Mark Shreeve here

Bill Turnbull - d. August 31st 2022

The world has want of warmth 

these days, and we have to take it 

where we find it. I fire up 

the morning coffee, the telly.

The sofa is dented where a man

once sat, a halo of bees buzzing,

lost now under the studio lights.

Read about Bill Turnbull here

Mikhail Gorbachev - d. 30th August 2022

What courage to open curtains

though your house is full of dark, 

to make peace with neighbours

while family changes your locks,

to shop for days of hope when 

mistrust is all we have in stock.

Read about Mikhail Gorbachev

Vincent Gil - d. August 21st 2022

Somwehere between the unrighteous 

and the unroadworthy are scags like you;

tailgaters, jailbreakers, petrol-blaggers, 

the sort who'd cut you up, leave you 

for dead. Oh yes, I'll remember you 

when I look up at the night sky.

Read about Vincent Gil here

Jerry Allison - d. August 22nd 2022

Downtown rings with songs 

the sort they don't play 

anymore, except this one, 

on this day. If you knew 

that shuffle on the snare

was the sound of goodbye, 

maybe you'd be blue too.

Read about Jerry Allison here