This Poem Here

Rob Walton

• Publisher: Arachne Press
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781913665319
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: European Poetry
• Index: Literature

When Rob Walton went into lockdown, he didn't know that he would also go into mourning. Here he writes about the life and death of his dad, and how sadness seeped into various aspects of his life.

He also manages to find cheap laughs, digs at the government, celebrations of the young and old, unashamed sentimentality and suddenly disarming moments of tenderness.

Walton's lines are expressed neatly and sparely, yet hold such purity and poignancy beneath them that they stop you in your tracks. Jane Burns Walton is a master of musical, looping refrains as he gets closer and closer to the troubled heart of things, during this troubled year of Covid 19 and the death of a much loved father. Deborah Alma (The Emergency Poet)

Contents

This Poem Here

Hey Dude, Don’t Diss Don’s Disinfectant Facts

Frailty

Covey

Every Time

Visitors

Who You Are

Meaning

Dilute to Taste

Howick to Craster and Back

Routine

Dream Catcher

Like in the Olden Days

Unforgiving

Self-aware

Lockdown Pint

Implausible

The Class of 2020

June 1st

Applause

One Man and His Dog

Breadhead

Waiting (i)

And in Lockdown

The Great British Pub

Lockdown Research

Waiting (ii)

Where Have All the Quizzes Gone?

Toilet Tissue

It’s a Rich Gardeners’ World

Last Night’s Quiz

One of the Very Worst Things

House Beautiful

Eve is Not in Dubrovnik

2021 Oxbridge Entrance Exam

What Do You Do?

Pinpointed

Dawning

The Last Dance

#UKPLCXMAS2020

Prime Minister’s Questions

This Poem Here

Christ, if I went through all the regrets

I have about my dad and the things

I could and should have done

I’d write poem after poem after book

and it would be a full collection

dissected in some online journal

or some blog and recommended

to someone’s 167 twitter followers.

God, if I went through all the regrets

I had about my dad when I was a full-grown adult

it would make an award-avoiding pamphlet

that one person would ask me to sign

and I’d spell their name wrong

even after I’d carefully asked them.

Jesus, if I were to write about the fact

my dad saw me in some strange pantomimes

and acting the goat on other stages

and even telling so-called jokes on the boards

of Kinsley Labour Club and how I regret

he never saw me reading poetry

never saw me reading poems

in celebration of him and my mum

well that

That would be a poem.

That would be this poem here.

That he’d never read.

That he’d never hear.

Hey Dude, Don’t Diss Don’s Disinfectant Facts

(24th April, 1:56 p.m. after a POTUS speech)

A dose of Dettol

will hopefully settle

all your ailments.

Consider Cillit Bang

as the cure-all thang

for Covi – for cron – for the bigly virus.

A vial of bleach

admi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• This Poem Here
• Hey Dude, Don’t Diss Don’s Disinfectant Facts
• Frailty
• Covey
• Every Time
• Visitors
• Who You Are
• Meaning
• Dilute to Taste
• Howick to Craster and Back
• Routine
• Dream Catcher
• Like in the Olden Days
• Unforgiving
• Self-aware
• Lockdown Pint
• Implausible
• The Class of 2020
• June 1st
• Applause
• One Man and His Dog
• Breadhead
• Waiting (i)
• And in Lockdown
• The Great British Pub
• Lockdown Research
• Waiting (ii)
• Where Have All the Quizzes Gone?
• Toilet Tissue
• It’s a Rich Gardeners’ World
• Last Night’s Quiz
• One of the Very Worst Things
• House Beautiful
• Eve is Not in Dubrovnik
• 2021 Oxbridge Entrance Exam
• What Do You Do?
• Pinpointed
• Dawning
• The Last Dance
• #UKPLCXMAS
• Prime Minister’s Questions
• Copyright