An #Otwituary for cartoonist #GlenBaxter
There is a spectrum of the absurd
which reads like this; Kafka, Python,
Zappa, Sisyphus, Trump, Milligan,
Baxter, though tomorrow the names
will be sung in Esperanto by a dingo.
An #Otwituary for wildlife photographer #DougAllan
When the planet is saved
it will name its roll of friends,
those few who truly saw it
in its most fragile moments,
who turned their lens upon it
to show an imploring world
looking at us square in the eye.
An #Otwituary for #HipHop pioneer #AfrikaBambaataa
I mourn the rhythm but not the man,
wondering how such unforgiving beats
could spring from one so unforgivable.
Yes, there is a corner of the dance floor
saved for you, but no-one dances there.
An #Otwituary for 1960s Olympian #MaryRand
The jump is all we ever know;
the run-up of youth, building
speed for our stadium days,
the explosion into the air of
our prime, then the descent,
the hope we might all leave
our impression in the sand.
An #Otwituary for Hollywood actor #ValeriePerrine
The camera loves those who deal
in damage; wives wed to madness,
showgirls who smile to reveal just
how broken they are, who play a role
only to find the role is playing them.
An #Otwituary for broadcaster #JenniMurray
When the hour is up, you will not need
these words to validate you. Besides,
it does not take an hour to show that
a safe space is not safe until everyone
finds their space, and everyone is safe.
An #Otwituary for actor #ChuckNorris
I know facts about Chuck Norris:
they invented a new colour for him
for a belt beyond black; even when
he played a bad guy he was good;
all his movies were really about him.
An #Otwituary for actor #TomGeorgeson
Among the angst and anger of a nation
in decline was the ubiquitous Scouser;
weary, resigned, speaking the life of a
worried man, waiting for a punch from
above to knock you into the next scene.
An #Otwituary for novelist #LenDeighton
They are holding a funeral
for an insubordinate spy;
somewhere cold and damp,
where a seedy war rages
in the shadows. A man in
NHS glasses drafts a final
report, for our eyes only.
An #Otwituary for actor #JaneLapotaire
There is a silence in the wings, then
the boards creak, bearing the weight
of an entrance. The first line is spoken
in a voice rustling like stage curtains,
billowing out into breathless theatre.
An #Otwituary for musician and activist #CountryJoeMcDonald
And it’s 1-2-3, what were you fighting for?
The music of sanity in an insane world.
And it’s 5-6-7, open up the pearly gates;
the lost patrol of the counterculture is here,
sounding off one-two in furious ragtime.
An #Otwituary for TV producer #KenithTrodd
I choose television; television
without fear, that sings while
others shrug, that shows the idiot
in the lantern before pulling out
to show ourselves in deep focus.
An #Otwituary for songwriter an musician #NeilSedaka
Welcome to 1619 Broadway, a place
where writers search for Sixteen
among the keys of an old piano,
where songs pay five dollars a line,
but everybody knows them by heart.
An #Otwituary for Civil Rights activist #JesseJackson
I fell into the company of marchers standing
at the foot of a rainbow, half way between the
mountain and the ghetto. Their leader told me
in a voice of fire Progress is not walking away
from something bad, but marching towards it.
An #Otwituary for actor #RobertDuvall
If this were your poem, it would ring
with authenticity; it would choose its
words with care, deliver them like an
obscure gospel. But this poem is mine,
and if I say it's safe to write this poem,
then it's safe to write this poem.
An #Otwituary for comic actor #CatherineO’Hara
Let's get your old folk duo back together
to sing your naive ballads. Take me out to a
Dog Show, or an alternative Oscars where
they give out statues for vanity and mischief,
where there's no script, but everybody laughs.
An #Otwituary for snooker player and commentator #JohnVirgo
Our lives depend on how
the pack splits. Some can
plan the future three shots
ahead; others rattle the jaws
of fate’s pocket, never knowing
where the cue ball may be going.
An #Otwituary for radio broadcaster #NigelOgden
The console lights come on; a hiss
of pneumatics before the 64-footer
clears its throat, audible from space.
Hands blur across four banks of keys;
the organist entertains, an orchestra
of ten fingers and a chorus of titans.
An #Otwituary for legendary #reggae drummer #SlyDunbar
Three taps on the rim of a snare,
and it can only be you. The skins
pulse to the riddim of your blood;
beat leaves holes in the studio air.
A taut roll as the last track begins;
nothing could ever sound so good.
An #Otwituary for BBC journalist #MarkTully
A voice comes through the heat-haze,
telling a billion stories of a billion lives,
separating truth from myth to camera,
reporting the spirit of a distant people,
unpicking the knotted braids of a nation.
@bbcindia.bsky.social @bbcnewsnight.bsky.social
An #Otwituary for pseudo-scientist #ErichvonDäniken
You said someday a fiery bird would return
to take you home, that its silver-suited pilots
would call you by your cosmic name. I saw
an image of your life viewed from altitude;
it resembled the shape of a man laughing.
An #Otwituary for designer, artist and novelist #MollyParkin
You can learn a lot of things about women
from racy novels; most of it untrue. A day
browsing in a boutique is more instructive;
trends wax and wane but the life you think
suits you best is always just out of reach.
An #Otwituary for #BrigitteBardot
I was in love with the idea of a woman,
a creation in medium shot, half insoluble,
half incendiary. Eventually, the camera
caught her in close-up, a picture of
disfigurement I once mistook for beauty.
An #Otwituary for musician #ChrisRea
Just when I thought the song was over,
a voice like a bank of smog rolled in,
fogging the road with a grey wisdom,
a melody it would be so easy to ignore,
driving us where we hope to follow.
An #Otwituary for TV’s #BuckRogers actor #GilGerard
We thawed out at the same moment: you
from the bliss of cryogenic slumber, into a
universe of cut-price skywalkers; I into too
much reality, too many earthbound futures,
unwinnable battles, unkissable Princesses.
An #Otwituary for actor and director #RobReiner
Met a guy at the Electric Banana
who offered me a part in his movie;
maybe waiting tables, an extra in a
courtroom scene, a lonely novelist.
I asked what he wanted from me;
I want answers, he said. I want truth.
An #Otwituary for novelist #JoannaTrollope
We are all middlebrow now,
in thrall to he said she said,
the touchable worlds of love,
whether imagined or illicit,
or sometimes even true.
Someone should write this
down; we may be touched by
the significance of small things.
An #Otwituary for entertainer #StanleyBaxter
Welcome to the extravaganza;
Hollywood in a Glasgow studio,
a man with a thousand voices,
none of them his own, and yet
all of them. Parliamo Tinseltown,
parliamo the lingua franca of joy.
An #Otwituary for novelist #SophieKinsella
A book is the best way
to travel; a paperback
is a seat in First Class,
a gold card. Live a life
you could never afford,
where nothing is perfect
but everything balances
at the turn of a final page.
An #Otwituary for #Mavericks frontman #RaulMalo
Wind lifts the tin roof
on a forgotten cantina
down by the border.
A couple dance
by the jukebox.
A voice like añejo
carries over the desert;
please let her know
that I’m well.
