July 2022 – Richard Williams Poetry

Thoughts from Empire’s Home-Port Shore

By Richard | July 31, 2022August 1, 2022 by Richard

Tarnishing and Rust On empire’s home-port shore,an old strength resisting.Lucknow to Sierra Leone,yellow fever to mutiny,marble balm for victories’ loss. A row of forgotten obelisks;lists of salt-seasoned names,of letters that shined like surffused in iron and brass,to seal a collective sigh. But stone flakes into shrapnel, the once hard edges of words,soft and reddening. Metal breaks down and dissolvesinto the reckoning earth. First published in Poetry & All That Jazz (2021) Portsmouth is full of monuments to…

Photography

Best of the Net Nomination

By Richard | July 26, 2022August 1, 2022 by Richard

I was delighted to hear that one of my poems was nominated for this years’ best of the net competition. It was nominated by Acropolis Magazine, who have accepted a few of my poems in the past. To see my poems on the Acropolis site, and those of others who have appeared there please go to https://acropolisjournaluk.wixsite.com/acropolisjournal The prose poem that’s been nominated is the darkest piece of writing I have ever submitted anywhere. You…

Poetry

When is it Ready?

By Richard | July 24, 2022July 24, 2022 by Richard

The poem which I’m sharing today, and have also shared on my poems page, was previously published on the Ink Sweat & Tears website in April 2021. It’s from a prose poem sequence that if I’d got my act together, could have been published this year. But it wasn’t ready, still isn’t. Comprising around 40 pages, all in a prose format, I’m not happy with it yet. I keep dipping in and out of it…

Poetry

Pompey Speak

By Richard | July 21, 2022July 21, 2022 by Richard

Something for your diary on Sunday 24th – a programme on Radio 4 about the Portsmouth dialect, which is different to all others in the UK. Poet Maggie Sawkins, winner of the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry, explores the language, dialect and poetry of her native Portsmouth in Hampshire. Maggie meets fellow poets Denise Bennett and Liz Neal at the city’s Historic Dockyard, to ask whether the Pompey dialect has been relegated…

Uncategorized

Poem Page Updated

By Richard | July 19, 2022July 17, 2022 by Richard

Just one new poem shared as a post in May, so that is now also showing on my Poems Page, along with about 40 others. Free to read, download etc. Just credit me if you use any of them please. Holiday in a Portsmouth Garden

Random Ramblings

#PM4PM

By Richard | July 10, 2022July 10, 2022 by Richard

Or not. Penny Mordaunt, who I am lucky enough to have as my MP, has thrown her hat in the ring to be the next Prime Minister of the UK. This is someone who made the egregious claim that Turkey was about to join the EU, when less than a minute spent checking for evidence of this showed it to be completely untrue. She either knew it was a lie or couldn’t be bothered to…

Poetry

South Downs Poetry Events

By Richard | July 3, 2022 by Richard

Ironically, after Friday’s post, the side hustle has taken up the time I was planning on using for writing poetry and a blog post today. Ah well. I’ll use today’s post to flag a couple of South Downs Poetry festival events this week Firstly an evening with Roger McGough on July 5th https://festivalofchichester.co.uk/event/poetry-and-music-with-roger-mcgough-south-downs-poetry-festival/ And secondly, Shout out to Shelley, in Horsham on the 8th July, which looks good fun, with Atilla the Stockbroker amongst other,…

Random Ramblings

Side Hustle

By Richard | July 1, 2022June 26, 2022 by Richard

Like many people I have a side hustle. Coming from a place where money was tight, (my father left home when I was quite young and I remember writing letters to charities to get funding for school equipment amongst other things), has shaped my attitude towards relying on one source of income. I’ve seen how a comfortable existence can be changed overnight. It’s shaped a lot of how I am as a person. And we…