Writing poetry is a bridge that allows people to express their feelings and make others live every single word they read. Just as any truly accurate representation of a particular geography can only exist on a scale of 1:1 (imagine the vast, rustling map of Burgundy, say, settling over it like a freshly-starched sheet! There’s a poem capturing the romance of children playing street football until it’s almost too dark to see the ball, and another in which going to the match is a rite of passage for an immigrant boy seeking to belong.

All submissions are carefully reviewed and the best are included within the finest collection of football poetry on the planet. Stream-of-consciousness and almost prose poetry in its form, ‘Football’ takes a wry and humorous look at the game. Bilston is a magician with words' Guardian 'Someone who knows their way round both a joke and a bittersweet narrative. The power of sport in such situations is the ‘mirth’ it provides the speaker: he can keep his mind from gloomier thoughts by joining his fellow man for a football or cricket match. On the last day of the 1997-98 season, Manchester City beat Stoke City 5-2 to condemn them to the third flight.The experience moved him so much that he wrote a poem about it – “Ode to Everton” – and sent it into the Liverpool Daily Post. It focuses on memories of childhood football matches, so would make a good funeral poem for a footballer or anyone who played in their youth. Perfect for football fans of all ages – from the young footie fanatic to a been-to-every-game-grandma, and every ‘I could’ve been a pro’ in between. from the young footie fanatic to a been-to-every-game-grandma, and every 'I could've been a pro' in between. Here is a collection of fabulously funny poems put together by John Foster and illustrated with creative genius by Korky Paul.

True, football is a team sport and feeds off the energy and will of the group, but it’s bigger than that.

Ways to Score a Goal and Other Football Poems includes witty chants, a haiku or two, and fun shape poems about the beautiful game. Become immersed in the emotion and personality of the game as these poems reflect human experience in its sheer diversity of feeling and being.

Braw Words is our latest venture, launched in 2021, for our young poets from across the country, aged 5 – 18 years of age. Calendar arrived safely in plastic-free packaging - which I've not seen before with a calendar, so kudos for that. Perhaps the most famous football match in European history is the Christmas truce of 1914, when the soldiers fighting in No Man’s Land sang songs and carols at each other from their trenches, and played impromptu games of football. And Ben Lander took us to the Madejski Stadium on 28 April 2013 when two teams, who both needed to win to stay up, set about doing absolutely nothing to help their cause. My Old Football’, which was set to music in the early twentieth century, is a fine football song/poem about the singer’s/poet’s close bond to his old football, because of the football’s close associations with the poet’s brother, who is off fighting in the war (see also Duffy’s poem below).The poems in this anthology strike an altogether more subtle note and take us to the very heart of why a seemingly straightforward team sport arouses such passion and commands such lifelong devotion. During Crystal Palace v Burnley, Ally McCoist and Jon Champion referred to Roy Hodgson’s age as the oldest-ever Premier League manager and second-oldest in football league history,” says Mark Stephenson. Julie is a rising star of the poetry world, who gives everyone who loves the beautiful game, an opportunity to put ‘pen to paper’.