Poem
John Stammers
NOM DE GUERRE
NOM DE GUERRE
NOM DE GUERRE
The heatwave has brought forth all manner of blossom:there are alcoholics in the gardens
of the church where my parents were married.
In the late afternoons, they lambast each other
with what life and death scenarios of the day.
They have special names like Dogsy and The Surgeon,
as do their drinks. If I ever park myself
back on that particular bench, I’d like a special name.
I wish my life were more coherent.
The pavements are sweating a sort of grey gunge.
I have lost the ability to imagine winter.
© 2005, John Stammers
From: Stolen Love Behaviour
Publisher: Picador,
From: Stolen Love Behaviour
Publisher: Picador,
John Stammers
(United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 1954)
John Stammers was born in London in 1954. His first collection Panoramic Lounge-bar (Picador, 2001) won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection 2001, was shortlisted for the Whitbread Poetry Award 2001, and was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. A second collection Stolen Love Behaviour (Picador, 2005) was a Poetry Book Society Choice. It was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize 2005, and ...
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Poems of John Stammers
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NOM DE GUERRE
The heatwave has brought forth all manner of blossom:there are alcoholics in the gardens
of the church where my parents were married.
In the late afternoons, they lambast each other
with what life and death scenarios of the day.
They have special names like Dogsy and The Surgeon,
as do their drinks. If I ever park myself
back on that particular bench, I’d like a special name.
I wish my life were more coherent.
The pavements are sweating a sort of grey gunge.
I have lost the ability to imagine winter.
From: Stolen Love Behaviour
NOM DE GUERRE
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