{"id":3337,"date":"2016-12-22T09:34:16","date_gmt":"2016-12-22T09:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larkreviews.co.uk\/?p=3337"},"modified":"2016-12-22T12:06:45","modified_gmt":"2016-12-22T12:06:45","slug":"john-robinson-poet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/?p=3337","title":{"rendered":"John Robinson – poet"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Robinson<\/strong><\/span> is a local born poet living in Hastings, East Sussex; his work appears widely in the small press and online literary journals; ‘Cowboy Hats & Railways’<\/strong><\/span><\/em> is his latest collection to be published by ‘Scars Publications’; it is available as a free PDF download from ‘Scars publications’ or as a perfect bound edition of the book is available via Amazon at \u00a38.88.<\/p>\n

\"j-robinson-pic\"<\/a><\/p>\n

His previous publication ‘When You Hear The Bell, There’s Nowhere To Hide<\/em><\/strong><\/span>‘ (Holy&intoxicated Publications 2016) carries an introduction by Brooklyn based underground legend poet and novelist\u00a0John\u00a0Grochalski;\u00a0\u00a0the poem ‘On My Father’s Side’<\/strong><\/em><\/span> was first published as a Broadside by the iconic 48th Street Press NYC; the illustration above is the work of Hastings based artist Jonathan Adie;<\/p>\n

<\/h6>\n
ON MY FATHER\u2019S SIDE<\/strong><\/span><\/h6>\n
<\/h6>\n
I never met<\/h6>\n
my grandfather<\/h6>\n
and really didn\u2019t<\/h6>\n
get to know my<\/h6>\n
own father<\/h6>\n
and my daughter<\/h6>\n
may feel as I;<\/h6>\n
she never met<\/h6>\n
her grandfather<\/h6>\n
and owing to my<\/h6>\n
own fears and<\/h6>\n
inadequacies<\/h6>\n
may feel that I<\/h6>\n
have distanced<\/h6>\n
myself ;<\/h6>\n
not by absence<\/h6>\n
but through my<\/h6>\n
quietness and of<\/h6>\n
not constantly<\/h6>\n
repeating<\/h6>\n
\u2018I love you\u2019<\/h6>\n
if something is<\/h6>\n
said once and it is<\/h6>\n
said in truth then<\/h6>\n
it is said forever<\/h6>\n
but here it is<\/h6>\n
in writing for you,<\/h6>\n
my daughter,<\/h6>\n
Bonita Rose,<\/h6>\n
I Love You.<\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

COWBOY HATS AND RAILWAYS<\/strong><\/span><\/h6>\n
Another time, drunk on wine<\/h6>\n
and beer and high on hash<\/h6>\n
and both of us wearing<\/h6>\n
these ridiculous oversized<\/h6>\n
Stetsons; he dared me to<\/h6>\n
climb onto the railway<\/h6>\n
bridge and swing above the<\/h6>\n
railway tracks and it didn\u2019t<\/h6>\n
seem to be a bad suggestion<\/h6>\n
so I did just that and as I<\/h6>\n
dangled from the iron bridge<\/h6>\n
above the tracks, I thought<\/h6>\n
of a time when I was 8 or 9<\/h6>\n
when he had passed out<\/h6>\n
drunk and I didn\u2019t know<\/h6>\n
where we were and I<\/h6>\n
couldn\u2019t wake him up and I<\/h6>\n
shouted and kicked and<\/h6>\n
punched him with tears in<\/h6>\n
my eyes and he wouldn\u2019t<\/h6>\n
wake up and I walked<\/h6>\n
away leaving him laying<\/h6>\n
in an alcoholic black-out<\/h6>\n
and somehow, I can\u2019t<\/h6>\n
remember how, I made it<\/h6>\n
home and my mother hugged<\/h6>\n
me like she had never done<\/h6>\n
before or since<\/h6>\n
and my father returned<\/h6>\n
a couple days later;<\/h6>\n
and I hung from the bridge<\/h6>\n
above the railway tracks<\/h6>\n
and he joined me and we<\/h6>\n
sang a few songs and our<\/h6>\n
arms tired and we decided<\/h6>\n
to climb back onto the<\/h6>\n
bridge<\/h6>\n
and then we threw our<\/h6>\n
Stetsons onto the<\/h6>\n
tracks and went in search<\/h6>\n
of another bar.<\/h6>\n

This poem first appeared in the poetry magazine<\/i>\u00a0The Peeking Cat<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Robinson is a local born poet living in Hastings, East Sussex; his work appears widely in the small press and online literary journals; ‘Cowboy Hats & Railways’ is his latest collection to be published by ‘Scars Publications’; it is … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3337"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3337"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3343,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3337\/revisions\/3343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.larkreviews.wickedlemon.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}