ENDLESS RIVER isn’t a typical book of poems. But that’s no surprise, because its author isn’t a typical poet.
Andrew Stephen began writing poetry as a teenager back in the 1970s but has only just got around to publishing his first anthology. It’s been worth the wait.
Andrew’s poetry covers a diverse range of subjects, including his love of Cambridge United FC, which he has supported since boyhood and was, until recently, chairman of the Cambridge Fans United supporters’ group.
After a long career as an English teacher that saw him sharing his love of poetry with generations of young people, Andrew is now retired and living in the Norfolk village of Barton Bendish.
His love of Norfolk and his home town of King’s Lynn features heavily in Endless River and includes three poems about his old school, KES, which he attended from 1964 to ‘71 and where he first discovered his love of poetry.
Endless River is available on Amazon in paperback, hardback and Kindle e-book formats. You can find it here: https://shorturl.at/hP7dY
By Far The Greatest Team:
Across the mist allotments
Where men escape
And smoke and mutter,
Through the faded curtains
Of my nana’s bedroom,
Gleam the great and yellow lights
Majestic in the dark nights
Shining on the theatre
Of our passing dreams.
Bovril and tea
Old men in macs
With pipes
And reluctant opinions
Surround the pitch
As expectations rise
With the crowds
As success builds on success
And little Cambridge
Startle the giants.
As a boy
I knew only dimly
About closed shops and jobs for the boys.
Bradford Park Avenue
Sounded exclusive to me
All those years ago.
We have been to Wembley
Beaten the richest club on Earth
On their own turf
Overcome decline
And near extinction
To thrill generations
Year after year
Bringing our children
And grandchildren
To touch their heritage
And feel the anguish and the joy.
Your club chooses you
I say
As once it chose me.
It’s in our blood
And inherited by right.
Be proud.