when you said you loved me 39
When you starred in my play 86
Whenever I went into our local library 13
Whenever my sons call round we hug each other. 393
‘Where do you get your ideas from?’ 278
Where I live is posh 241
Where I live is shite 241
Where would we be without worry? 358
Wherever night falls 334
Who are these men who would do you harm? 395
Who was the naughty girl I saw combing her hair with a bluebell 37
Why can’t I teach Creative Writing in Minnesota? 273
Why can’t the poor have the decency 183
Wild Bill Sitting Bull 135
With a rainbow under your arm 29
Woke up this morning with a limp. 365
yesterday 28
you always were a strange girl now weren’t you? 41
You are his repartee. 246
You are strangely excited 271
you are the cat’s paw 46
You came to watch me playing cricket once. 14
‘You look like the wreck of the Hesperus 200
You must remember this 10
‘You’ll soon grow into it,’ she would say 18
Your duck’s arse 338
Your husband upped and left you 294
INDEX OF SOURCES
The Mersey Sound (1967; revised edns 1974, 1983)
A Lot of Water has Flown under your Bridge 30
Aren’t We All 32
At Lunchtime 58
Comecloase and Sleepnow 30
Discretion 36
Dreampoem 45
The Fallen Birdman 13
The Fish 41
Goodbat Nightman 109
Icarus Allsorts 54
The Icingbus 180
Let me Die a Youngman’s Death 60
Mother the Wardrobe is Full of Infantrymen 57
M66 52
My Busconductor 177
My Busseductress 178
My cat and i 44
On Picnics 51
Sad Aunt Madge 7
Snipers 3
A Square Dance 50
There’s Something Sad 174
Vinegar 43
What the Littlegirl Did 175
What You Are 46
Why Patriots are a Bit Nuts in the Head 51
You and Your Strange Ways 40
Summer With Monika (1967) 63
Watchwords (1969)
The Act of Love 33
The Hippopotamusman 179
If life’s a lousy picture, why not leave before the end 40
Man the Barricades, the Enemy has let loose his Pyjamas! 28
My little plastic mac 35
Poem for the opening of Christ the King Cathedral, Liverpool, 1967 159
Poem on being in love with two girls at the same time 29
snowscene 199
Soil 205
The Stranger 199
Sundeath/greentears 39
Who was The Naughty Girl 37
After the Merrymaking (1971)
after the merrymaking, love? 33
Amateur traumatics 86
and the field screamed ‘TRACTOR’ 206
Bucket 4
Buddies 85
Bulletins 88
Cake (original title ‘First Degree Marriage’) 90
a cat, a horse and the sun 212
Dawnmare on 24th St 173
Dreampoem 2 (original title ‘dreampoem’) 45
Dunenudes 34
Ex art student 312
40—Love 95
Flying 171
Hash Wednesday 91
Head Injury 100
McGough’s last stand 89
The Mongrel 91
The Newly Pressed Suit 308
On having no one to write a love poem about 44
Pantomime poem 197
P.C. Plod at the Pillar Box 110
P.C. Plod in Love 110
P.C. Plod versus the Youth International Party 112
P.O.W. 97
The Sergeant gets a handsome deal 111
Smart Railings (original title ‘Railings’) 4
The sun no longer loves me 43
There are fascists 202
Three weeks ago we decided to go our separate ways 98
Train Crash 256
Trenchwarfare 88
Uncle Harry 257
Vandal 87
You may get the vote at eighteen, but you’re born with a price on your head 362
Gig (1973)
9 to 5 (or cosy biscuit) (original title ‘epilogue (or cosy biscuit)’) 125
Another Brick in the Wall (original title ‘Canterbury’) 17
Birmingham 114
Bradford 115
bravado 87
Canterbury 120
Cardiff 122
Cardiff 6 p.m. 121
Cardiff 11 a.m. 122
crusader 161
exsomnia 167
George and the Dragonfly 25
happiness 85
Huddersfield 117
humdinger 27
The Identification 252
Leeds 119
Newcastle 118
Nottingham 124
ofa sunday 168
italic 169
out of sequence 184
the picture 309
Sheffield 119
tigerdreams 90
tightrope 90
un 86
Unlikely (original title ‘Loughborough’) 169
vampire 163
warlock poems 164
Wolverhampton 115
In the Glassroom (1976)
A Brown Paper Carrierbag 252
Catching up on Sleep 162
Conversation on a Train 126
Footy Poem 157
Kyrie 255
The Lesson 195
Near to You 38
Newsflash 172
Postcard (original title ‘Postcard Poem 1’) 172
Science, where are you? 363
Holiday on Death Row (1979)
Blazing Fruit 275
Cabbage 204
Closet fascist 201
Contact lenses 38
The death of John Berryman in slow motion 287
Funny sort of bloke 256
A golden life 96
His poems are nets 282
Holiday on Death Row 102
The horse’s mouth 175
Incident at a Presidential Garden Party 174
Just another Autumn day 181
The lake 221
May Ball 42
Missed 347
Mouth 101
Nocturne 167
Passion 360
Poem for a dead poet 300
The Rot 99
Solarium 361
Survivor 355
Take a Poem, Miss Smith 276
10 Ways to Make a Killing on the Stock Market 92
Tide and time 258
Vague Impressions 23
Vegetarians 202
War of the Roses 259
W.P.C. Marjorie Cox 261
Work-to-rule 182
Waving at Trains (1982)
The Battle of Bedford Square 305
The Birderman 208
Educating Rita 289
The Examination 272
Framed 309
Happy Ending 329
I Don’t Like the Poems 304
Is My Team Playing 158
Noah’s Arc 53
Rabbit in Mixer Survives 326
Rainbow 29
Romantic 267
The Scarecrow 207
Scintillate 169
Shy 28
Six Shooters 246
There Was a Knock on the Door. It Was the Meat 203
Two Haiku 315
UNLUCKY FOR SOME 187
A Visit to the Poet and his Wife 288
Water, Tree, Cave, Mother 196
Waving at Trains 170
What My
Lady Did 260
When I Am Dead 302
You and I 95
Sky in the Pie (1983)
Haiku 315
The Leader 183
Melting into the Foreground (1986)
All Over bar the Shouting 93
Bars are Down 6
Bits of Me 367
The Boyhood of Raleigh 311
Bye Bye Black Sheep 2
A Cautionary Calendar 254
Conservation Piece 213
Crocodile in the City 216
The End of Summer 252
A Fair Day’s Fiddle 183
The Filmmaker 301
For Want of a Better Title 296
From ‘Les Pensées’ by Le Duc de Maxim 292
Good Old William 258
Green Piece 214
Happy Birthday 335
Hearts and Flowers 7
Here I Am 336
The Host 263
How Patrick Hughes Got to be Taller 310
In Transit 259
The Jogger’s Song 242
A Joy to be Old 329
Last Lullaby 94
Laughing, all the way to the Bank 265
low jinks 360
Melting into the Foreground 345
Muffin the Cat 279
My Little Eye 1
Ode on a Danish Lager 346
On the Road 113
Poem with a Limp 365
Prayer to Saint Grobianus 351
Q 341
Sap 213
Today is Not a Day for Adultery 269
Tramp Tramp Tramp 5
Trees Cannot Name the Seasons 212
What prevents a poem from stretching into Infinity? 315
Wheelchairs 295
Who Can Remember Emily Frying? 262
Worry 358
Nailing the Shadow (1987)
Days 333
In Good hands 334
Poem for a Lady Wrestler 262
Uncle Roger 337
Defying Gravity (1992)
Alphabet Soup 13
Another Mid-life Crisis 350
As Every Bandage Dreams 266
Awful Acrobats 297
Bath – Avon 272
Bearhugs 393
Behemoth 215
Big Ifs 313
The Blues 349
The Bright Side 358
Carbon 372
Children’s Writer 314
Cinders 395
The City of London Tour 226
Crazy Bastard 340
Creative Writing 273
A Critic Reviews the Curate’s Egg 283
Curse 222
The Darling Buds of Maybe 291
Defying Gravity 389
Early-Morning Poems 350
Element 109 379
Ex patria 240
Fart 243
Fear of Flares 341
Fired with Enthusiasm 352
Five-car Family 223
Five Ways to Help You Pass Safely through a Dark Wood Late at Night 211
The Fly 215
Fool’s Gold 378
Four Sons 394
Getting Off 362
Getting On 362
Gold 377
Hard Times 20
Having My Ears Boxed 16
How to Become a Sixer 19
In at the Kill 392
Iron 373
Isolation 343
It’s only a P… 298
It’s only a P… Part Two 299
Joinedupwriting 314
Just Passing 394
The Man in the Moon 389
Maurice 19
Mercury 375
The Nearest Forty-two 284
Nitrogen 371
No Surprises 246
Oxygen 371
Planet Babel 286
The Poet Takes an Autumnal Stroll on Hampstead Heath 273
Poor Old Dead Horses 177
The Railings 14
Repelled by Metal 302
Rocker-by 338
Sacrifices 18
Shavings Account 351
Snowing Down South 26
Spitting Prohibited 21
Squaring Up 15
Star Juice 349
Stinging in the Rain 225
Sulphur 376
This be Another Verse 291
The Trouble with Snowmen 391
The Unknown Worrier 358
Used to Drink 348
Wearing Thin 18
Where It’s At 338
Who are These men? 395
Word Trap 285
Your Favourite Hat 267
Lucky (1993)
Drinking Song 349
Sporting Relations (1996)
Accrington Stan 150
Albert Robinson 131
Alf 141
Alfreda 142
Angelina 138
Aunt Agatha 143
Aunt Ermintrude 134
Aunty Ann 151
Aunty Dora 133
Barry Bungee 146
Big Arth 149
Billy Our Kid 135
Cousin Carolline 130
Cousin Chas 132
Cousin Christ 147
Cousin Daisy 154
Cousin Fiona 148
Cousin Fosbury 143
Cousin Horatio 140
Cousin Nell 155
Cousin Reggie 137
Cousin Wystan 128
Dear Lonely Hearts 137
Elmer Hoover 153
Eno 145
Grandma 127
Granny 137
The Hon. Nicholas Frayn 150
Kung Fu Lee 131
Marvin 146
Merve the Swerve 139
Old Mac 144
Terry and Pancho 139
Uncle Anthony 130
Uncle Bram 134
Uncle Jack 139
Uncle Jason 147
Uncle Jed 154
Uncle Len 152
Uncle Leo 152
Uncle Malcolm 127
Uncle Mork 129
Uncle Noah 136
Uncle Pat 130
Uncle Sean 138
Uncle Trevor and Aunty Penny 140
Wild Bill Sitting Bull 135
Monstrance 396
The Spotted Unicorn (1998) 316
The Way Things Are (1999)
Bad Day at the Ark (i–iv) 228
Balloon Fight 388
Casablanca 10
Clone 279
Clutching at Cheese Straws 342
Coach and Horses 299
Dialectically Opposed 271
Dressed for the Occasion 361
Ee Bah Gum 22
End of Story 245
Fatal Consequences 228
The Father, the Son 234
Fits and Starts 269
5-star 344
For the Sake of Argument 307
Global Warming 227
Half-term 342
The Health Forecast 369
In Case of Fire 352
In Good Spirits 330
In Vain 370
Light Sleeper 240
A Literary Riddle 314
The Map 270
My Shadow is but a Shadow of Its Former Self 363
New Brooms 359
Nothing Ventured 330
Old-fashioned Values 239
One Poet May Hide Another 288
An Ordinary Poetry Reading 277
Pen Pals 238
The Perfect Place 335
Perfume 343
Poetspotting 293
Posh 241
The Revenge of My Last Duchess 310
St Francis and the Lion (i–ii) 232
A Serious Poem 297
Sheer 226
Shite 241
Spoil-sports 237
Stop All the Cars 224
Trust Me, I’m a Poet 294
Vague Assumptions 353
The Way Things Are 396
What Happened to Dorothy 12
What Happened to Henry 11
Whoops! 271
The Wreck of the Hesperus 200
The Written Word 284
The Wrong Beds 368
Everyday Eclipses (2002)
After the Reading 278
An Apology 26
Bees Cannot Fly 334
Bob Dylan and the Blue Angel 381
A Bolt from the Blue 383
Don’t Read All About It 355
Echoes Sound Afar 387
The End 357
Everyday Eclipses 356
A Fine Tooth Comb 23
Flight Path 355
Greek Tragedy 248
Hey, Dude 382
Honey and Lemon 210
In Two Minds 160
It’s a Jungle Out There 354
Learning to Read 1
The Logic of Meteors 281
The Lottery 339
Love Cycle 386
M.I.L.T. 386
Meeting the Poet at Victoria Station 274
Memento Mori 296
My Divine Juggler 385
My Life in the Garden 334
No Message 96
On Dover Beach 227
On Having a First Book of Poetry Published 59
On the Point of Extinction 286
The One about the Duck 209
The Oxford Book of Twentieth-Century English Verse 303
The Perfect Crime 93
Persimmons 198
Porno Poem 304
Pure Jaguar 222
Right as Rain 366
Sad Music 390
Say ‘Ah!’ 367
Sleep Over 198
The Tallest Man in Britain 264
The Terrible Outside 250
Thank U Very Much 384
The Theatre 312
This is One of Those 305
Toffee 293
Tsutsumu 236
Two Riddles 283
‘What does your father do?’ 16
Unpublished
All for Laurie Lee 289
Conservative Government Unemployment Figures 182
The Last Strike 182
Poem for National LSD Week 124
Punk doll 337
Summer with the Monarch 83
Valentine 265
1 ‘No.’
2 ‘Why? Here I am the chef.’
3 Miss the Big C.
4 Alas.
5 ‘True cemetery’.
6 The Death it is Myself.
7 ‘A grand success’.
8 The Truth.
9 End.
*‘The Voluptuous Night’, for instance, would make a decent title.