New Blog

All you need to know about the 2012 Poetry Advent Calendar is here

Thank You & Happy New Year

We have had thousands of views over December!

I would like to say Thank You to:

Our Poets

Hollie McNish
Cathy Bryant
Yanny Mac
Jack Pascoe
Anna Percy
Gary From Leeds
Charlie Rawcliffe
Angela Topping
Rachel McGladdery
Ginna Wilkerson
Agnes Marton
David Mountain
Jennie Bailey
Charlotte Henson
Claire Trevien
Sam Lane
Nick Jarvis
Sian Rathore
Jo Langton
Zelda Chappel
Dermot Glennon
Lucy Lepchani
Gerry Potter
Billy Bragg
Anna McCrory
Red Newsom
Jayne Stanton
Michael Wilson
John Darwin
Laurie Bolger
Jo Bell

Everyone that submitted work
All of the Facebook Friends and Twitter Followers
Everyone that read daily

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: Will there be another Poetry Advent Calendar in December? How/When can I submit to it?
A: Yes, check back here mid-Nov for submissions and Dec 1st for the first poem

Q: I wasn't successful with my 2011 submission, should I submit again?
A: Yes, just because you weren't successful this time around, it doesn't mean that your work wasn't good enough, I had a lot of submissions with only 31 calendar days available

Q: Who are you?!
A: My name is Zach Roddis, I study English BA (Hons) at Manchester Metropolitan University, I write/perform poetry regularly. This blog was just a little idea I had an a boring November weekend. I am going to be cheeky and end this post with a poem of my own

'A Poem from the Future'

E4 are still repeating Friends
Radiohead have re-released The Bends
2012 has been and gone, and the world didn't end
Keep Calm and Carry On

Grand Theft Auto has been banned
Johnny Rotten's advertising jam
Politicians are wearing fake tan
Keep Calm and Carry On

The Deftones are on MTV
Rihanna is on the front cover of NME
Rage Against The Machine are on a Christmas CD
Keep Calm and Carry On

The NHS is on it's arse
The X Factor is still a farse
The Olympics had a false start
Keep Calm and Carry On

The Hadron Collider discovered nothin'
McDonalds increased the price of an Egg McMuffin
Marathon runners are still runnin'
Keep Calm and Carry On

There's a war that's far from over
The Simpsons killed off Homer
As for the economy; I could've told ya
Keep Calm and Carry On


Happy New Year Everyone

Peace & Love


Zach Roddis

Day Thirty One: 'Resolution' by Jo Bell

'Resolution'

Hungover in the cow-fresh air, they leave their friends
to stuffing frosty cars with leftovers and sleeping children.
He wishes that they had a dog, or tartan travel rugs.

The pub is mulled and mistletoed,
aglint with copper pans and holly.
The Sheffield Pipe Band skirls, unlikely, by.

He heaves her uphill to the torpid castle:
kisses her against the wishbone walls,
trumpets blarting up through crow-filled trees.

They march down singing Wenceslas.
This is going to be a fruitful year,
he thinks. Or better than the last.

Jo Bell

Day Thirty: 'A Bare Bedroom With Two People' by Laurie Bolger

'A Bare Bedroom With Two People'

Twenty and afraid of silences,

I chat mindless babble

when scanning your book-shelves

for clues of you – a comment

for every single one.

I sip rum laced with ginger ale;

we will sit and drink, wait until

one half gives in.

This isn’t when the room stands still,

or when music starts as time stops.

“Do you want another drink?” he asks,

and removes the glass from my hand.

These are those invisible drinking cords

that fasten us together after

a few too many.

I don’t know you that well –

so I sit and talk.

I play with one button on my cardigan

that’s come away, and hangs there

on its thread.

Laurie Bolger

Day Twenty Nine: 'Manchester my Winter' by John Darwin

'Manchester my Winter'

Mascara smudge and pillow shaped

by head now gone and back to home

where paying bills and being straight

and tying gifts with fingertips

that did a trick for me last night

is how it has to be;

And he won't know and she won't know

but we know where this thing will go

where rivers wide and thoughts ill-shaped

by time's raw fate

and love and hate

meet cul-de-sacs of nothing;

The scent of hair and hair on clothes

and make up flaked on last night's threads

and threads of lives and beads of sweat

we haven't seen betrayal, yet,

accelerates the fire;

From flush of youth to long time dead

twelve years in someone else's bed

you bring yourself to hold my gaze

dilation gives the game away;

your omnipresent verbal pause

accented pure Mancunian,

the tremor of your shyness;

In taxi queues at five past three

where office workers take their drink

like once-teetotal pledge-takers

methodism in their madness;

you lean right in, hips sway away

and take a cab the wrong way, south

I often dream but seldom sleep

the vacuum of your absence.

John Darwin

Day Twenty Eight: 'Red' by Michael Wilson

'Red'

you drank the guts of a bottle
to be able to digest the waste of the television screen
don't fear the hallucinations
don't fear the visions you will see
they lead your hand to mine
you argue the black of night time
into the white morning
and are your eyes just cameras
or do you change the things you see?
and you drained the last of the bottle
to see a small sliver of paper at the bottom
drenched in red
that read your fortune
read your life backwards
and left you sitting here

Michael Wilson

Day Twenty Seven: 'Snowhenge' by Jayne Stanton

'Snowhenge'

morning roads snow-blocked

vehicles lie snow-shocked

railway station snow-lined

routes to nowhere snow-signed

High Street snow-stalled

Castle grounds snow-walled

Steep Hill snow-swagged

Christmas Market snow-gagged

Strugglers Inn snowbound

Bishop’s Palace snow-crowned

Minster towers snow-carved

Uphill, downhill: snow-halved

wrought iron snow-crafted

bare trees snow-grafted

sleeping city snow-claimed

inner beauty snow-framed

Jayne Stanton