CONTENTS
Title Page
1 | THE OPPOSITE SEX
John Hegley:
A Declaration of Need
Connie Bensley:
Choice
Gregory O’Brien:
Love poem
Rita Ann Higgins:
The Did-You-Come-Yets of the Western World
Kim Addonizio:
You Don’t Know What Love Is
Selima Hill:
Please Can I Have a Man
Tony Hoagland:
Romantic Moment
Ivor Cutler:
Three Sisters
Dermot Healy:
One Minute with Eileen
Ivor Cutler:
For sixpence
Peter Finch:
Kipper on the Lips
Julia Darling:
Forecasting
Caroline Bird:
Trouble Came to the Turnip
Lorraine Mariner:
Stanley
Joanne Limburg:
Inner Bloke
Geoff Hattersley:
How She Puts It
Eleanor Brown:
Bitcherel
Sophie Hannah:
Rubbish at Adultery
Fleur Adcock:
Smokers for Celibacy
Finuala Dowling:
Doo-wop girls of the universe
Priscila Uppal:
The Old Debate of Don Quixote vs Sancho Panza
2 | MATTERS OF LIFE & DEATH
Glyn Maxwell:
Don’t Waste Your Breath
Michael Leunig:
The Awfulisers
Finuala Dowling:
Well
Ian McMillan:
Burst Pipe with ‘A Level’ Notes
Kay Ryan:
Spiderweb
Michael Rosen:
I ran away from home…
Jonathan Edwards:
The Voice in which My Mother Read to Me
Sharon Olds:
Self-Portrait, Rear View
Lucille Clifton:
homage to my hips
Tony Hoagland:
My Father’s Vocabulary
Adrian Mitchell:
Shaven Heads
Billy Collins:
Forgetfulness
Oli Hazzard:
The Inability to Recall the Precise Word for Something
Gus Ferguson:
Samsara
Russell Edson:
The Antiques Shop
Roger McGough:
Let Me Die a Youngman’s Death
Roger McGough:
Not for Me a Youngman’s Death
Gus Ferguson:
Not a rumour, a murmur
Wendy Cope:
My Funeral
Paul Durcan:
Tullynoe: Tête-à-Tête in the Priest’s Parlour
Finuala Dowling:
How Sweet the Dead Are Now
3 | NOWT SO FUNNY AS FOLK
Geoff Hattersley:
In Phil’s Butchers
Matthew Welton:
The fundament of wonderment
Adrian Mitchell:
Ten Ways to Avoid Lending Your Wheelbarrow to Anybody
Sam Riviere:
The Prince
Daljit Nagra:
Singh Song!
Paul Durcan:
A Man Besotted by his Batch
Brendan Kennelly:
Front Gate
Matthew Sweeney:
Black Moon
Ian McMillan:
Pit Closure as Art
U.A. Fanthorpe:
You Will Be Hearing from Us Shortly
Duncan Forbes:
Job Description
Rita Ann Higgins:
Women’s Inhumanity to Women
James Tate:
The Ice Cream Man
Julie O’Callaghan:
Managing the Common Herd
Deborah Garrison:
Fight Song
John Whitworth:
Ruling-Class Sonnet with Capitals and Obscenities
Benjamin Zephaniah:
This Be The Worst
Thomas Lux:
Plague Victims Catapulted Over Walls into Besieged City
Thomas Lux:
The People of the Other Village
Dean Young:
I See a Lily on Thy Brow
James Tate:
The Native Americans
Simon Rae:
Nursery Rhyme
4 | PECULIAR PLACES
Duncan Forbes:
America
John Hartley Williams:
The Good Ship Venus
Kate Fox:
Our Ends in the North
John Agard:
Alternative Anthem
Kit Wright:
Everyone Hates the English
W.N. Herbert:
To a Mousse
Irfan Merchant:
Address Tae Chicken Tikka Masala
Lorna Wallace:
Tae a Selfie
Jackie Kay:
Maw Broon Goes for Colonic Irrigation
5 | SOUNDS TRUE
Marin Sorescu:
Omens
Elizabeth Thomas:
Lies My Mother Told Me
Caroline Bird:
I Know This Because You Told Me
Peter Reading:
FROM
Going On
John Gallas:
For his Islamic enthusiasm…
James Tate:
How the Pope Is Chosen
Marin Sorescu:
Superstition
Kay Ryan:
Blandeur
Julie O’Callaghan:
The Sounds of Earth
Bill Manhire:
Hotel Emergencies
Dean Young:
Static City
Kit Wright:
The All Purpose Country and Western Self Pity Song
Matt Harvey:
Thwok
W.N. Herbert:
The Black Wet
Liz Lochhead:
The Man in the Comic Strip
6 | ANIMAL MAGIC
Dean Young:
Convinced by a Nalungiaq Song
Jo Shapcott:
Goat
James Tate:
It Happens Like This
John Whitworth:
From My Rough Goatbook
Martín Espada:
DSS Dream
Russell Edson:
The Joy Attendant on the Little Journey
Russell Edson:
Counting Sheep
Chrissy Williams:
Sheep
Jo Shapcott:
Lies
Jo Shapcott:
Love Song with a Flock of Sheep
Deryn Rees-Jones:
Sheep Piece
Stephen Dobyns:
Spiritual Chickens
Tiffany Atkinson:
The Man Whose Left Hand Thought It Was a Chicken
Ken Smith:
The Chicken Variations
Selima Hill:
Cow
Gus Ferguson:
The Metempsychosis of the Yak
Frank Kuppner:
A Prodigy of Nature
Matthew Sweeney:
Horse Music
Paul Farley:
The Heron
Helen Ivory:
Chameleon
Kay Ryan:
Crustacean Island
7 | WORDS & WORSE
John Whitworth:
Home Truths
Oli Hazzard:
A Few Precepts
Wendy Cope:
Proverbial Ballade
John Whitworth:
Like the Proverbial
Paul Muldoon:
Symposium
Robert Phillips:
Nothing’s As It Should Be
Oli Hazzard:
With Hindsight
Billy Collins:
Adage
Simon Armitage:
Ivory
Imtiaz Dharker:
Speech balloon
Billy Collins:
What She Said
Billy Collins:
Oh My God!
Barbara Hamby:
Ode to American English
Imtiaz Dharker:
I swear
Thomas Lux:
Invective
Peter Didsbury:
Malediction
Thomas Lux:
Rather
David Lehman:
One Size Fits All: A Critical Essay
William Grono:
The Critic
Kay Ryan:
Water under the Bridge
Paul Muldoon:
Errata
Iggy McGovern:
Eirata
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
INDEX OF POETS
About the Author
Copyright