Contents

   TIES OF THE HEART

Poems that explore the bonds of family and  friendship, as well as

sparkling memories of chance encounters. With tributes to Benjamin Zephaniah,

John Martyn, E.P. Thompson, Mary Shelley, and the author's father. 

 

Includes:  A Gallant Ship, For a Godson, For Benjamin, 

The Major, his brother, and his never lived-with lover, 

John Martyn encountered, Is There a Sense?, Mary and the Legacy, 

For Mark 

 

LIFT-OFFS

Poems inspired by travel, with places and situations

shared and deeper issues considered.

 

Includes: The Plane was Late, From the Skies, 

For Jenny and Chris, en route to Nice, 

The Dying Glacier, Thank You, Fog the Second, Stonehaven, 

Aberdeen: Byron’s Broad Street Boyhood, ‘Beatles Ashram’, Rishikesh,

  Chennai: ‘When I Checked in for Dental Health’, Somewhere in this City,

 When There is an Onion Shortage, The Weightiest Places I Have Been, 

‘Lerici is Always Charming’, Thank you – To Who? 

  

 WORDS ON THE WOKE

A series of gently critical pieces homing in on some of the

more infuriating and contradictory aspects of contemporary “Wokery”.

 

Includes: It’s a Woke World – Hurray!, Apropos ‘Appropriation’, 

There Was a Time Our Own Sir Keir, On the Return of Donald Trump, 

Black Lives Matter (said Lord Bentinck)  

Don’t Think Black, Don’t Think White,

 And On the Mighty Orientalists 

  

NO SUCH THING AS INFIDEL 

Poems navigating the complex meeting points between Islam and the West

— beginning with tolerance and intolerance in Islamic history,

tracing the divergent paths of the two cultures, and finding,

in a local Middle Eastern food store, a quiet hope in the

shared priorities of everyday coexistence.

Includes: The Ballad of Akbar and Aurangzeb, If Stratford Could Speak, 

The Cross and Crescent Wreathed in Flight, Lebanese Girl Poem, On Shafilea Ahmed, 

An Incident in Peshawar, These Baklava On My Plate

(I Sing of Bad Theology), A Poem for Gaza's Young, A Praise Song

 

STANZAS ON UKRAINE

Poetic expressions of solidarity with Ukraine, chronicling Russian aggression

and Ukrainian resistance,  culminating in 'Ukraine Dreamin’,

a vision of coexistence through the eyes of a Russian dissenter.

 

Includes: From 1968 to 2022…, Law No More, What Gives You the Right?, 

He’s Just a Common Thief, Ukraine Dreamin’, …and On To 2025  

 

 A BYRONIC FABLE, In which Lord Byron and Joe Biden

reflect on Afghanistan and Greece 

A BEATLES FABLE, In which Hitler has a nightmare

about a Yellow Submarine 

 

  FORWARD THINKING

Reflections on diaspora, legacy, and the generations to come

— poems that ask how we stay grounded, sane, and humane

in our fast-moving world.

Includes: The Rise of Diasporic Lives,

For Those Unborn, A Maxim: All I Can Do

 

 

John Webster’s poems “tell it like it is” — candid yet compassionate,

provocative yet hopeful. Drawing on his background as a songwriter,

his verse carries the rhythms of English balladry

and the emotional punch of lived experience.

 

Available now on Amazon in the UK here

and in the USA here

and from bookshops quoting ISBN 978-1-0683328-6-9

Paperback £9.99, e-book £4.99