EDITORIAL 

GOBSHITES ABROAD 

Aubrey Malone recalls the quirks of his dad and his hometown. I thought the tone quite elegiac. Aubrey was cast down when the family left Ballina, he was only sixteen, but is now resigned to Dublin. When I mentioned a possible excursion he sent me a number plate (see next page). 

Other plangent reminiscences include Bob Wild on playing marbles (teks me right back) and Tom Kelly similarly recalls earlier times with his grandad. Still on the good old days Alexis Lykiard describes the poetry word-fest at the Albert Hall in 1965 summed up by Tynan as “a partly embarrassing, partly inspiriting occasion” and then, as if to prove he’s not living in the past, knocks out 24 haiku. I wondered if this deluge was triggered by some domestic upset – apparently not – his cat Rufus is alive and well. 

Tanner splutters entertainingly on signs, and is now, sadly inaccessible in Toronto (that soulless parking lot, according to Trump). Other English poetry is well represented however by Ken Champion and Keith Howden. 

Jim Burns yearns for old bookshops. He’s not quite in category of the mad book-bibber Bruno Schroder (see Oik 67) but us ageing bookworms will agree – there’s nowt like ‘em – but where are they? Jim’s own gaff in Cheadle would qualify. (see page 96  )

Finally that number plate.

  

Joyce? Beckett? Yeats? Heaney? Surely not. Perhaps one of the Behans. 

Ken Clay July 2026

CONTENTS

EDITORIAL
ENDINGS Aubrey Malone

HAIKU – Alexis Lykiard

MARION GREENWOOD – Jim Burns

CATCHING THE SPIRIT– Alexis Lykiard

POEMS – Keith Howden

ME, GRANDA AND THE HORSE – Tom Kelly

GETTING MY OWN BACK – Bob Wild

NOW YOU SEE IT Mark Ward

SIGN OF THE TIMES– Tanner

REMY (1) – John Lee

I WAS THERE – Mary Mannion

POEMS  Ken Champion

GERHARD RICHTER – Tony Roberts

AUTODIDACT ARTEFACT – Howard Slater

A BOOKSHOP OF ONE’S OWN – Jim Burns