Tuesday 21 January 2020

MY FRIEND JACK COMMON










































 








 
 
 
 
 
Ever since the sixth form,
when I found you, 
a kindred Novocastrian
in a library book,
I seem to have followed in your steps,
stumbled after you 
in rain soaked lanes,
knocked on doors
in search of your stories.
For over forty years,
I have tracked
the movement of your pen
in streets you walked
and on cross country trains
from your own Newcastle
to Warrington
Malvern,
Newport Pagnell,
Letchworth,
Yetminster,
Wallington 
and back again.
I have given talks about you,
supped in your pubs,
strode along your paragraphs 
and river paths
to try to find
that urge in you
to write 
out of your veins
what you thought of things,
what made you tick
and your loved ones 
laugh and cry.
I tried to reach you in a thesis,
to see you as a lad in Heaton,
but I could never catch your breath
because I didn’t get to meet you
face to face,
could only guess
that you were like me:
a kind of kindly 
socialist writer
in a world
too cruel for words.





KEITH ARMSTRONG

Peter Common Well said Keith!



Dear kindly socialist writer - this is great - thanks a lot for sending it

Love
Pat

Tuesday 7 January 2020

TUEBINGEN DREAMS


Happy New Year! Tuebingen Dreams - photographs by Ulrich Metz; words by Keith Armstrong!

 

I will sing again in Tuebingen.
I will kick out the glass on Melancholy Street.
I want to hear Uhland breathe in the daft breeze,
see Hoelderlin brood on a raft.
This world is crazy
and my mind
rejoices in it.


KEITH ARMSTRONG

(FROM 'TUEBINGEN WEBCAM')

Hi!

Very best wishes for the New Year!

I expect to be back in Tuebingen in July 2020!

Cheers,
Keith


ps Here's a link to my new project with Tuebingen photographer Ulrich Metz!:


https://keithyboyarmstrong.blogspot.com/2019/12/tubingen-dreams-photographs-ulrich-metz.html