1822 - Shelley on the sea shore

1822 - Percy Bysshe Shelley
Is washed up on the shore of Italy
His friends Byron, Leigh Hunt and Trelawny
Cremated him there for health and safety
Reasons, though legend has it that Mary
His wife, or Hunt, grabbed from the funerary
Pyre, Shelley's smoking heart, eventually
Buried in Bournemouth, on her death. Did he
Help Mary to write Frankenstein? Likely
Since he did write its foreword, and probably
Helped her with the plot. He was thought badly
Of by his contemporaries, too free
In many ways, leaving wife and baby
And roaming Switzerland and Italy

1821 - Lake through the heart

In 1821 the suicide
Of John Polidori was not big news
Yet he was the first in English to write
Of vampires, one long June night on the Swiss
Shores of Lake Geneva with Percy Bysshe
Shelley, Lord Byron (whose doctor he was)
Mary Shelley and Claire Clairmont, who wished
To be Byron's love, but became the cause
Of his hate. In 1816, all those
Named read horror stories, then spent the night
Writing their own versions, which still amuse
Americans (and others), make dollars
Especially from the teen market. The side
Of Lake Geneva, soon meant for my eyes

1820 - Today's to-do list (mainly done)

August Bank Holiday, I've seen a lot
Of things on TV and on computer
The world athletics championships were brought
Live on TV all the way from Korea
I also studied German, to prepare
For my Swiss trip next month, while races ran
And hammers were thrown, and then i-Player
Was used to watch Gilbert O'Sullivan
And Eddie Waring, a Bill Hicks programme
And some Edinburgh Fringe stand-up slots
I'm writing this at seven. Next, guitar
Practice, with a new list of songs to run
Through in September, then a film I got
From the library...and then I'll be knackered

1819 - Mary Anne was not a man

In 1819 George Eliot was born
As Mary-Anne Evans, for she was not
A man, but came up with the nom-de-plume
So literary sexism could be offset
For a serious writer could be upset
By that kind of thing, do her work real harm
By not being read or published, a regret
That would kill the muse. Grew up on a farm
In the Midlands, views too modern for some
On religion and lifestyle. She was scorned
For not being a looker. Then she got
With a married man, causing some alarm
She spent time in Geneva, then went on
And up, for it was Middlemarch she wrote

1818 - The horror, the horror

In this year, that's the year 1818
Was published an early horror classic
Yes, it was Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
It set the standard for all horror schtick
Not sure though if he had bolts in his neck
Or was that Herman Munster? Hmm, dunno...
Since movies were invented, there've been flicks
Like Nosferatu haunting the shadow-
Filled cinema auditorium... Though
These were just 2-D celluloid, we'd Scream
When directed, or jump at each door's click
Hitchcockian suspense... See Saw? Er, no...
D'you want to see my chainsaw, pretty teen?
'Scuse me, my Ma's in the cellar... She's sick

1817 - Stage of development

So pleased I got today off, flexi-time
Enabling me to prepare properly
For a Bolton gig... OK, open mic
But these things often seem sent to try me
Today the problem was the battery
In my guitar had died since I used it
Last (ages ago) and it died on me
On stage which could have meant I died with it
But no, although the amps didn't work, grit
And humour saw me through, and they all liked
The act even if it was comedy
Mixed with music. But people sang lyrics
Of my song 'Barbecue In Crewe' as I'm
Singing it for the first time. I'm happy...

1816 - Food and drink

I've been out after work, the Marble Arch
Pub, Up Rochdale Road, was where we four went
Did it used to be called the City Arms
I have vague memories of times way back when
Especially vague, since I was drunk back then
In the early or mid-nineties. After
The Marble Arch we went back towards town
A Chinese restaurant, going by the
Name of the Glamorous, the area
It's in certainly not that, but no harm
Done. I got a lift home, after Neil lent
A lift to John up Liverpool Road, where
The Indian and Japanese places swarm
With punters after good meals for less spent

1815 - A little dust-up at Waterloo

In 1815 there was a to-do
In what's now Belgium, then the Netherlands
We're familiar with the name 'Waterloo'
Though younger folk associate it with trains
But the station's part of celebrations
Like Trafalgar Square is, of victories
In the Napoleonic Wars. Stations
With battlefield names abound in Paris
On the Metro, so it's not just the Brits
Who do this. The Romans built arches too
After twenty-five years of disturbance
Waterloo checked French imperial hubris
For long enough for others to come through
As worthy opponents - Germans, Russians...

1814 - Wars are to win or Toulouse

In 1814 Napoleon lost
The fight against the Russians and Prussians
Since Moscow he'd been forced back at great cost
Of land and men, now left with untrained sons
To fight for him, but the Parisians
Saw their own proud town ground down, enemy
Troops entering, and the Emperor gone
In exile to Elba. Arthur Wellesley
(Wellington) took Toulouse. Meanwhile, GB
Was also at war with the States across
The ocean, setting fire to Washington
DC this year, defending valiantly
The invasion of Canada, but lost
A fight next January in New Orleans

1813 - You are now entering Free Libya

Libya is at last feeling that it's free
From Benghazi to Tripoli. The grip
Of 42 long years of Gaddafi
Is almost loosened, its last fingertip
Clings as he prepares to fall off the cliff
The Transitional National Council
Is talking to NATO on how to slip
Painlessly from dictatorship to full
Democracy, with the quite difficult
Aspiration of that democracy
Not yielding to that backward-looking trip
Into theocracy, or some tribal
Split which would make more martyrs. Now to see
If the Syrians can pull off the same trick

1812 - The gates of Moscow

In 1812 Napoleon came to grief
At the hand of Russia's General Winter
Invading in the quite insane belief
That long-term gains from lightning strikes follow
In a country so vast, apart from the
Technologically undeveloped lands
Like Australia, North / South America
Africa, even China, but no chance
Of conquering Russia, far too far advanced
To be subdued for long, thanks to dead chiefs
With modernising vision, like Peter
And Catherine the Great. Even Hitler's tanks
Met the same icy fate, Moscow relieved
By snow, then driving out the invader

1811 - What's goin' down in 1811, y'all?

1811 was a busy year
All sorts of stuff was going on, trust me
Of course there were Napoleonic Wars
Mainly in Spain, but also Denmark's sea
Egypt's Albanian boss, Muhammad Ali
Also known as Ali Pasha was at
Constant near-war with Ottoman Turkey
Later, but now he was removing that
Centuries-old Mamluk rule. King George mad -
Official! Regency, under George Four
As he would become. Paraguay, Chile
Venezuela, join other states who had
Broken free from Spanish rule. Luddites were
Rising up, and the Yanks beat Tecumseh

1810 - Before going down the pub after work

I'm exhausted, woke up quarter to six
Each morning it gets earlier, it seems
Not drinking's working out okay, the trick's
Getting to sleep and staying deep in dreams
Sufficiently long. If not, when light streams
Under the morning curtains, it's okay
At first to get up early - it's a shame
Later when weariness is here to stay
Energy and attention start to stray
Mid-afternoon feels like midnight. Tocks, ticks
Each second clicks by, slow in the extreme
A drink after work? Can't stay out to play
That late, think I'd rather head home... But mixed
Feelings now... The pub may be the best scheme...
Fri 19 Aug

1809 - Sketches of Spain

In 1809 the Peninsular
War was dragging on, bloody and costly
In lives. The Spanish and Portuguese were
Treated by Napoleon's well-trained army
Brutally, and for what? Was it glory
Or greed on France's part? Madrid had fought
Back the year before, the Second of May
Rising being famously, movingly caught
In Goya's painting. Other sketches might
Also have been imagined from that war
Producing many monstrous shadowy
Charcoal images I studied when brought
Last year to Manchester..... Saragossa
Corunna, Porto, Talavera ... Cry!

1808 - Sheepish sonnet

So much to do and I'm a bit knackered
Cos I woke up before seven o'clock
By my standards I was an early bird
But it's OK, I got more done at work
However, I still need to play some rock
On my guitar (are my songs rock?) and I
Also have football and films I must look
At... and chores, and I should eat frozen pie
(After I've heated it!) and bye and bye
I'll be ready for blissful sleep in bed
Everything done, content for sheep to flock
Before my eyes... I decided to buy
Sheep's cheese at Sainsburys, so a whole herd
Of woolly fellows should appear, with luck

1807 - Hacked off again

They're starting to get bored of the riots
And now the top news story's phone hacking
Again, like it was in those recent months
The Murdochs back in the dock, and squirming
As disgruntled MPs turn the grilling
Up a notch, till the once-powerful are toast
Meanwhile the rioting teens are all finding
Themselves in jail, though some could only boast
Of taking bottles of water, though most
Were after a new phone, daughters and sons
Smiling on CCTV then, crying
In the cells now... Now welcome back the ghost
Of the hacking scandal. Meanwhile my funds
Are improving as I keep on saving...

1806 - Praise the Lord and pass the ballot paper

In America the Republican
Presidential candidates are coming
Out from the shadows into the open
A faith in God seems to be the first thing
They feel they must declare, like arriving
At an airport, revealing your baggage
To millions of inspectors, then going
Through a religious X-ray arch to gauge
Their fitness to enter office, the cage
That's oval-shaped, the goal for which they run
To be a ceremonial head, doing
As little as possible, disengage
From progressive programs soon as they can
Saying it's the old values they're keeping

1805 - Goldsinger

Got up, cleaned the flat and then wrote a song
Called 'End of the Golden Age' - that's a phrase
I've used before in a poem not long
Ago, but before the riots took place
The long-term crisis is hard to erase
From tha annals of probability
After all, population grows apace
Especially the poor, as together we
Exhaust resources like oil, kill the sea
No war or threat of war makes us less strong
Less united, selfish, where no-one stays
At home to teach their kids civility
Where jobs are long gone, the tormented young
Sold what they can't afford - for them, hard days

1804 - Glory and misery

In 1804 when Napoleon
Upset Beethoven, turning power mad
Crowning himself emperor in Notre Dame
Once more we saw corruption, though some said
It was for the best after years of bad
Governance by the Revolutionaries
Beneficent dictatorship's a good
Thing if the leader only focuses
On the good of his people, but this was
Not so, despite the Code Napoleon
A better legal system than they'd had
He was a military man, bound to seize
Not just power but land with a loud cannon
Where few could stop him drench that land in blood

1803 - Home or away?

My daughter's been on holiday in Wales
This week, and sadly there's not been much sun
My little girl, now eight, can't tell us tales
Of many trips or adventures, foreign
Or domestic, because me and her mum
Split up. She went to Italy when a baby
And obviously no memories remain
East Anglia when she was four, there'll be
Some recollection, like there'll be when we
Went to Dorset in '08. British gales
Rainstorms and summer clouds spoil every one
Of those British holidays. Only three
Were sunny that I can recall. It fails
Every time. I'm thinking of Switzerland...

1802 - Mass debates

I worked hard and I achieved miracles
At work today, it seemed, and left quite late
Then cooked my tea and watched the news, its tales
Of financial and societal straits
Afflicting us all. Russia Today baits
Us here in western Europe even more
Than those bloody BBC hypocrites
With their debates designed just to obscure
The truth we all know, the rich and the poor
Question Time's back tonight, with raised hackles
No doubt, about the riots, mass debate
Partisan views or idealistic blah
I can't help feeling that the liberals
Among us will be struggling in this fight

1801 - Eye witness account of the trouble in Manchester

As yesterday's train got to Manchester
I was tipped off that there might be trouble
In a text sent just then by my daughter
And sure enough as I came down the hill
From Piccadilly Station I saw all
These cops, some on horseback, guarding the way
To Market Street, now inaccessible
I threaded my way round to St Ann's Square
Where youths, intoxicated with power
Were looting the Three mobile phone shop there
A shop I've been in to get technical
Help with my phone difficulties. So they
Are suggesting solutions, but from where
Is the money coming to make us well?

1800 - Train of thought

On the Newcastle to Manchester train
Meeting all done, tax not really taxing
There'll be no taxi home - walking again
Music ringing in my ears, me singing
In my head only, or they'd be thinking
Here comes a madman. (Don't want them to know!)
To immature fantasy I still cling
But it keeps me young, well I reckon so
Don't want to grow vegetables yet, no
Not got green fingers, but got a keen brain
Even if only for a few small things
And those small things are what I want to grow
Safely out of sight, there they will remain
Unless fate determines their revealing
Tue 9 Aug

1799 - Revolution number 99

They set a bus on fire in Tottenham
And next day some kids threw rocks at the police
In Enfield. Walthamstow and Edmonton
Apparently also had serious peace
Disturbances on their normally safe streets
In other words, after the first outbreak
The kids of those places wanted a piece
Of the same action - well, it's fun to make
A riot, burn a cop car, and to take
Electrical goods from shops, be shown on
The telly, but I do wonder if these
Are just kids showing off, or should we wake
To a harsh new climate since things began
To go downhill almost as fast as Greece

1798 - Ireland briefly unites (without the support of the Catholic Church)

In 1798 the Irish rose
Hoping to imitate America
And France, short haircuts and less well-disposed
To Protestant or Catholic dogma
Two years ago in Bantry Bay, offshore
The French fleet were pinned, till they sailed away
This time, the Irish, though many, were poor
As an army, just guerrillas, and they
Were betrayed and hunted down every day
They therefore launched their rising which arose
Near Dublin Castle, but the British were
Forewarned and little was achieved. They say
Terrible things happened as the Brits closed
In on Wolfe Tone's rebels, rape and torture

1797 - Wallies and vomit

I got really wrecked last night, yes, it's true
I only had five pints, but they were mixed
Beer and strong cider - that you mustn't do
Or like me you will end up being sick
And I was, this lunchtime - the kitchen sink's
Where I threw up quite noisily, neighbours
Stirring below as if they'd heard the thick
Liquid hitting the stainless steel, a noise
They could hardly have missed - it had such force!
After that I felt much better, thank you
And no longer felt nauseous. It's the kick-
Off of the new season - Football Focus
Was watched with - well, more focus - since I threw
Up, and that was followed by athletics

1796 - Beer talk

Tonight I'm off out for a pint or two
In the Crescent and New Oxford, Salford
It will be boring on my own, with Lou
In London, so I'm off out with Dermot
Far nicer I hope to drink such a short
Distance from home. It's right on his doorstep
Me, I'll have to stagger up Oldfield Road
If the chippies are open I will help
Myself to a sausage, gravy and chips
Last time I was at the Crescent, the brew
Fair blew my mind, I drank so much I sprawled
On the road as I tried to cross, but felt
No pain at the time, but the next day, oooh...!
Here's to the beer down in Salford Crescent
Fri 5 Aug

1795 - They tried to make me go to Bolton, I said no no no

I've chickened out but who can say I'm wrong
I've chosen not to drive up to Bolton
To play my part in open mic and song
And instead I've bought fags and got cans in
Well it's a warm evening, I'm on my own
And I don't have anything to prove, not
To the same people, not over again
Especially those who can act like a twat
It's my decision - practising has got
Me so far but I've still got quite a long
Way to go before it turns into fun
And admiration, not ordeal or sweat
Or ultimately, regret. I will bring
My guitar and me out when I can stun
Thur 4 Aug

1794 - Northern sun

It's lovely to have hot weather at last
Not since April have we had a long warm
Spell, but here we are in early August
Enjoying a heatwave, not Benidorm
Or Rio, but who wants to fry? The storm
May follow, but for now enjoy the sun
And see the British in their summer form
Red shouldered, red necked, tattooed, all as one
Sitting outside the pubs trying to have fun
Despite the traffic always rushing past
The dusty pavement tables. Our forlorn
Post-industrial landscapes are transformed
Into a playground where blue skies and rust
Red brick fuse into a less hostile home

1793 - France goes mental

The year of '93 saw Louis' death
By guillotine in cold January
Marie Antoinette breathed her final breath
That October - the end of royalty
And for the Republic, a victory
Magnified by some successful actions
Beyond French borders - Belgium, Italy
And even into the German Rhineland
At this time, at Toulon, Napoleon
Used his artillery skills to good effect
Before long he was exiled far away
Fighting Austrians, losing to Lord Nelson
At the Nile, but kept at distant arm's length
So he couldn't take over in Paree...
Tue 2 Aug

1792 - Poor America

The weather's like June though it's now August
Still, at least the States have agreed on debt
Reduction, thus avoiding a catast-
rophe on a world scale. Max Keiser said
Barack Obama was a mere puppet
Of Wall Street. It figures. American
People, you're being screwed by the rich set
Deliberately, though each politician
Namechecks you in each speech each time they can
Really they seem to hold you in disgust
Still, no economic meltdown just yet
If only five years ago I'd had funds
I could have bought gold like they all advised
But I was poor then and now, so sod it
Mon 1 Aug