Barry Newman - d. June 11th 2023

Yes, there were scripted cases,
acquittals, legal escapology,
but let me tell the whole truth:
you were the sum of bricks,
a screen dream of a house,
a career, a vanishing point. 

Read about Barry Newman here

Angela Thorne - d. June 16th 2023

Comedy empires fall and rise,
leaving superannuated troupes
full of Frobishers and Truscotts
to surface on Dave and UK Gold,
each a dim mimeograph of you,
approximate in feed, line and cue.

Read about Angela Thorne here

Glenda Jackson - d. June 15th 2023

The role calls for make-up; no need
when you already inhabit the face,
the gesture, the manner; acting as fact.
 
The role calls for dialogue; no need
when you already speak strength,
tragedy, comedy, conscience; a class act.

Read about Glenda Jackson here

Cormac McCarthy - d. June 13th 2023

Write me the joys of privation
or mutilation where words are
limbs made to be pulled apart
and gnawed upon and show me
a gun loaded with two ideas
one for you and one for me. 

Read about Cormac McCarthy here

Silvio Berlusconi - d. June 12th 2023

È su ogni canale -
in seguito; tini
di olio d'oliva, montagne
di Viagra, soldi, ragazze.
La festa è finita,
anche se per alcuni
Non finisce mai.

It’s on every channel -

the aftermath; vats
of olive oil, mountains
of Viagra, money, girls.
The party’s over,
though for some
it never ends.

Read about Silvio Berlusconi here

Roger Squires ('Rufus') - d. June 1st 2023

The puzzle does not stop;
a clue to you is in my head,
unsolved, cryptically alive.
1 Down - Gold chops,
Pepsi shaken - he’s dead!
(6, 3, 5) 

Read about Roger Squires here

Astrud Gilberto - d. June 5th 2023

I am in a place I can never go,
a benevolent sun on my back.
A voice whispers a spell; rhythm,
becomes a charm, like the shuffle
of feet on sand, and all at once
the world is warm, and young,
and lovely. 

Read about Astrud Gilberto here

Cynthia Weil - d. June 1st 2023

Something beautiful’s dying;
the last notes of an old song,
the sound of a lover crying
for you as you leave, the wrong
tune on their lips, but still trying,
even if nobody else sings along.

Read about Cynthia Weil here

Tina Turner - d. May 24th 2023

Turn up the jukebox and listen
to the sound of soulful thunder,
shot of bourbon and hit of acid,
a rhinestone shimmy and a voice
like salt water and molasses. 

Read about Tina Turner here

Rolf Harris - d. May 10th 2023

We all bought your canvas; a fake.
Couldn’t tell what it was till too late;
layer on layer of a betrayer’s paint.
A predator’s hand. A monster’s face.

Rolf Harris

George Logan - d. May 21st 2023

The 70s: I still can’t tell if it was the birth
of a Sapphic Utopia, or its death-throes;
dear old ladies bickering at the piano,

gender-fluid played as a spectator sport,
dragging up our past, and our future. 

Read about George Logan here

Martin Amis - d. May 19th 2023

The written word fades from the living page.
The author shrinks, chapter, line and letter,
leaves the ghost of his own plot, character,
dialogue, becomes a space for a life to fill.

Read about Martin Amis here

Andy Rourke - d. May 19th 2023

That sound; an elastic bass,
cutting through the fey poetry
and the guitar sweetmeats,
driving secrets into the light,
a sound that never goes out.

Read about Andy Rourke here

Linda Lewis - d. May 3rd 2023

All those cuts from the decade
of bad dreams - was that you
in my headphones, five octaves
from baritone to archangel?
Eight bars in and I know for sure
you’re not a little girl anymore. 

Read about Linda Lewis here

Gordon Lightfoot - d. May 1st 2023

Sundown on the prairie
is when the songs come knocking;
ballads of drowned sailors,
of lovesick troubadours walking
nowhere, lonesome railroads
and love, sung like ghosts talking.

Read about Gordon Lightfoot here

Wee Willie Harris - d. April 27th 2023

Play it one more time:
that degenerate sound,
a hormonal explosion,
sung like a seizure
by a creature
one-third ape,
one-third suit,
one-third out of control.

Read about Wee Willie Harris here

Jerry Springer - d. April 27th 2023

Makeup and hair have done
what they can for him, Barnum
of brownstone and trailer park.
He waits off-set for his final cue
to hold our feet to the fire,
to hold a mirror to our faces.

Read about Jerry Springer here

Peter Martin - d. April 19th 2023

You were written small, a line
or two in the ensemble of North,
the quiet soul at the back door
who lets themself in and one day,
without warning, bursts into song.

Read about Peter Martin here

Harry Belafonte - d. April 25th 2023

You came so far to sing the news,
to mend the bucket and its many holes,
to serenade the ending of long night,
nobody’s slave and nobody’s fool.
Daylight comes. Time to go home. 

Read about Harry Belafonte here

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