>other than Michael Horovitz's book-length _The Wolverhampton Wanderer_ and
>Paterson's "Nil Nil" what other contemporary poets have written about
>football?
These come to mind:
Simon Armitage, Goalkeeper With a Cigarette
W N Herbert, Beppe
Paul Farley, A Minute's Silence
Amy Clampitt, Oi, Ref, Are You Blind or What?
Best I can offer is this, from my first collection (and based on August
Kleinzahler's poem 'Where Souls Go'):
August (and Nothing After)
As I sit on the bus down the curve of The Mound,
I catch the chat of the couple in front:
"I hear that Roddy Lumsden doesn't believe
in the soul," she says, and shakes her head.
"Worse than that," says he, "they say he won't
even entertain the concept of the soul.
Is that no' awfy?" I smile my wicked smile.
Then, full of grace, we crosscut Princes Street
where buskers ply their breeze and bile
and lovers cheek each other in the heat.
An old man's coughing by the flower stand.
Two girls drop into Milne's Bar for a beer.
Our flag is flying in a hundred lands.
"The punishment has got to fit the crime."
And rising up from Easter Road, a cheer
as Hibs go three down just before half-time.
Roddy
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