Joss Ackland – d. November 19th 2023

I hear a distant rumble; a voice
like an articulated lorry, resonant
in its bulk, commanding the ear
and eye to follow as it swallows
the stage, the line, the language.

Read about Joss Ackland here

Frank Borman – d. November 7th 2023

The astronaut’s bleakest curse yet
brightest blessing; to be condemned
to perpetual low orbit, suspended
between the moon’s dead orb and
the rising halo of the good Earth. 

Read about Frank Borman here

David Berglas – d. November 3rd 2023

The king of misdirection cuts
the pack one last time, holds
the illusion of life in his hand.
Deck spills a diamond: the ace.
Was this the card you chose? 

Read about David Berglas here

Richard Roundtree - d. October 24th 2023

Harlem needs its heroes too, cats
that won't cop out and won't be
nothin but badass. You're uptown,
kickin on a door on a ghetto backlot,
a door into consciousness and style.
You're gonna have to close it yourself.

Read about Richard Roundtree here

 

Bill Kenwright - d. October 23rd 2023

Some watch from the wings;
others build the stage, seed
the pitch, lead the songs, feed
their passions, do something
with a dream, and let it breed.

Read about Bill Kenwright here

  

Bobby Charlton - d. October 21st 2023

When this world is too full
of goalhangers, how much
we cherish those who burst
from midfield with the ball,
a humble juggernaut; a touch,
SHOOT! Unlikely, unstoppable.

Read about Bobby Charlton here

 

Tony Husband - d. October 18th 2023

The dark Ministry wheezes,
breathless with mediocrity.
The streets are full of yobs
swaggering into conscious print.
And yet, one stroke of a pen
and this, all of this, is pricked. 

Read about Tony Husband here

Piper Laurie - d. October 14th 2023

These are godless times;
actors wade through blood
for men and their lenses.
I came home to a dark house
to find you lighting candles
to me and my teenage horror.

Read about Piper Laurie here

Pippa Latour - d. October 7th 2023

Here’s to a life in the dark:
the sky you fell from; the
unlit lanes and assignations
under a war-torn moon; the
family who never guessed
how you set Europe ablaze. 

Read about Pippa Latour here

Terence Davies - d. October 7th 2023

I am sat with you in the boozer,
nursing a black-and-tan, sodden
with song, looking for little victories,
stolen notes of pleasure that come
only once every Preston Guild. 

Read about Terence Davies here

Francis Lee - d. October 2nd 2023

Penalty! Down you go then up
you get to smash in from the spot,
chest bulging like a keg of lager,
sky blue blood, face in the mud,
one foul away from a fistfight.

Read about Francis Lee here

Pat Arrowsmith - d. September 27th 2023

Can we march together? You lead
and we will follow. We number 100
and more, marching to a place with
no bombs, no cells, the struggle won,
where the only thing mutually assured
is love.

Read about Pat Arrowsmith here
 

Michael Gambon - d. September 27th 2023

You blister in the bed of memory,
the world actors create; real, whole,
a plotting of dreams. Your character
sings from gramophones of the soul
as your skin shrivels, cracks, falls away
to reveal the role beneath the role.

Read about Michael Gambon here

David McCallum - d. September 25th 2023

Open Channel D; a yearning message
beams in from a million sighing teens to
their agent of cool. Escape is not an option;
the mission calls. Medium atomic weights
are available: he has been reassigned.

Read about David McCallum here

 

Lou Deprijck - d. September 19th 2023

Wham! Bam! Le son du punk
vu à travers un filtre dayglo,
fanfaronner sans cracher, pogo
sans polémique, anarchie
caricaturale, et pourtant,
et pourtant, ça plane pour moi.
 
Wham! Bam! The sound of punk
seen through a dayglo filter,
swagger without spit, pogo
without polemic, cartoon anarchy,
and yet, and yet, it's ok by me.

Read about Lou Deprijck here

Roger Whitaker - d. September 13th 2023

There is a backwater of music
for bearded folk dreamers,
troubadours in hush puppies,
cheerful whistlers in the prows
of boats that are always leaving
but never reach their destination.

Read about Roger Whittaker here

Gayle Hunnicutt - d. August 31st 2023

Your name on the marquee,
almost certainly misspelt.
Your face on the screen,
almost certainly misplaced.
Your life on the credits,
almost certainly misremembered.

Read about Gayle Hunnicutt here

Jean Boht - d. September 12th 2023

This is how the mythology starts;
with shibboleths of cartoon scouse,
where everyone is scrounger, tart,
dreamer, schemer. Your open house
was a closed book, and you at its head,
the unbridled scold who baked the bread. 

Read about Jean Boht here

Ian Wilmut - d. September 10th 2023

From new thought, new process.
From new process, new cell.
From new cell, new life.
From new life, new proof.
From new proof, new science.
From new science, new thought. 

Read about Ian Wilmut here

Lisa Lyon - d. September 8th 2023

See these muscles; once
knots on cotton but now
like moons of steel, gibbous
under the skin. See this form,
bulking, building to true power,
a flexing of more than flesh.

Read about Lisa Lyon here