National Poetry Day yesterday

 National Poetry Day.

It did escape your attention yesterday but it was National Poetry Day and this seems an opportunity to wax lyrical about my new book of football poetry called Football's Poetic Licence. Now this is the point when you feel duty bound to apologise to not only the Bard William Shakespeare but also those esteemed poets from another age William Wordsworth and John Keats. Football would clearly not have sat easily with some of the most beautiful wordsmiths who ever lived. But they wrote about life, people, raw emotions, landscapes, portraits, historical parables, the universe, nature and things that really seemed to matter to those who wanted to read about the finer things in life.

Of course this is not to say that football can still reach out to those who like their literature and word play. There's a great deal to be said about the scenery and backdrop against which football is still played over a hundred years since its birth in the Victorian era. There are vivid descriptions of the game's atmosphere, its dramatic potential, the crowd, the players themselves, the way in which we've always understood its semantics, nuances, its feelings, the sounds, acoustics, the smells, the terrace chants, the flags and scarves.

So my new book of football poetry Football's Poetic Licence is a modest compilation of my favourite football moments, cup competitions, the Premier League, the FA Cup, Champions League, a warm eulogy to my lovely dad, my late and wonderful mum and dad, grandpa Jack, the World Cup, England, Euro 2020, Europa League, the Carabao Cup, football grounds and Ilford FC, my local team growing up. You can buy my new book at Amazon, all good Waterstones bookshops, Waterstones online, Hatchards and Barnes and Noble online in the USA.

Now since this is National Poetry Day it would be fair to point out that poetry as a style of writing is easily overlooked, mocked and derided by those who still think that only the likes of Wordsworth, Keats and Oscar Wilde were capable of producing such purple prose. They may well explain to you that poetry is the deepest expression of our soul, a heartfelt piece of writing that has to relate to flowers, the seasons, the colour of the sunset, lakes and rivers. Poetry of course should ideally rhyme but now more than ever it has to be thought provoking verse written with meaning and profound sentiments.

So here's my promotion of my football poetry book Football's Poetry Licence. There are references to the big, wide world but the difference is that this time it's about poetry in a footballing context. There are little cameos about football, plenty of imagery and descriptive word play. I think you're going to like my new book of football poetry because we've all heard about goals being scored like poetry in motion or the fluid movement of the game which has to lend itself poetry.

Of course you celebrated National Poetry Day and a happy, belated National Poetry Day to everybody. Football's Poetic Licence is my personal homage to the Beautiful Game, a game that will always capture the imagination, always have us on the edge of your seat, enthrall us, guarantee escapism from an often troubled world and provide a platform for the spoken and written word. Once again I hope you all had a great National Poetry Day yesterday and for those who love writing just keep writing.