Lovely to have three of my poems on panels at Bede Metro Station, Jarrow. The launch of the work, ‘Convergence’ took place today.

 

Thanks to Mark Gibson, the artist behind the project, calligrapher Angela Reed of Creative Calligraphy http://www.creative-calligraphy.co.uk/ Who did such a beautiful job in writing my poems.

And big, big thanks Nexus, who promote, sponsor and organize these panels. And I imagine most things in-between.

Here are the poems.

 

JOHN DONNE IN JARROW

 

Not that long ago,

on my way to the pub,

I saw a man standing at his back door

looking at the sky,

examining early evening light,

flying past

into his dark kitchen.

I imagined thick grease around a cooker,

windows closed tight

but for that moment

he appeared in a great world of air and angels.

 

Tom Kelly

 

Taken from my collection, ‘The Wrong Jarrow’ (2007)

http://smokestack-books.co.uk/book.php?book=32

 

ELEGY

 

The yard’s

dead, quiet

 

chains no longer

hold onto ships

onto lives.

Tom Kelly 

Taken from my collection, ‘The Wrong Jarrow’ (2007)

http://smokestack-books.co.uk/book.php?book=32

 

The Good-Bye

(From a Jarrow Crusade Photograph)

 

He carries a kitbag over his shoulder,

stretches to kiss his daughter,

one farewell out of many.

 

The child’s coat is crumpled,

she holds her father’s waistcoat,

sees his smooth face and the crowd beyond.

Tom Kelly

Taken from my collection, ‘Somewhere in Heaven’ (2010)

Red Squirrel Press

http://www.redsquirrelpress.com/SquirrelCAT.html