The bard celebrates two other fine practitioners of the art, and laments a lost brewer
Outside the One Stop
Myfanwy Fox
A puddle’s sludge has settled
beneath its skin of oil.
Khaled proffers his Big Issues
to oblivious passers-by.
Our wettest winter’s clouds
reflect as livid bruises
in an diesel sheen.
When the next storm breaks
shoppers abandon pavements
for Costa’s welcome
or the Co-Op’s familiar aisles.
Khaled takes refuge
in the doorway
of a boarded-up bookshop.
Hail stones pock the puddle’s
gunmetal slurry.
ADRIAN WEIR charts the intercontinental trade union solidarity with Cuba and its desperate predicament
ALAN MORRISON recommends a consummate, heart-warming collection about a working-class upbringing in the industrial north-east
ANDY CROFT welcomes the publication of an anthology of recent poems published by the Morning Star, and hopes it becomes an annual event
Warming up for his Durham gig, the bard pays attention to the niceties of language


