Peter Street
Colours
1954 my five years old
favourite colour royal blue
bucket and spade
swimming trunks all blue
blue until school days
when dad bought
me a red satchel
and took me to
red evenings
innocent of colour
until Thatcher and co
with deep breaths
lungs ready to burst
blue away families
miners, pits blue away
their brass bands blue away
confidence and marriages
my angry years became Red
Peter Street was born in England 1948, and lives in Wigan. He left school epileptic and barely able to read and write. To date has had three collections of poetry behind him: Out Of The Fire (Spike Books, 1993) (a Forward Nomination), Still Standing (TowPath Press, 1998), Trees Will Be Trees (Shoestring Press, 2001). In 2006 Peter was commissioned to write poetry for a Tony Bevan Catalogue, a way in, to Tony's paintings. His poetry has also been seen on television in Germany, Holland and here in England on both ITV and BBC. His New and Selected Poems, Thumbing from Lipik to Pakrac, were published by Waterloo Press in 2008. He lives and works in Atherton, Lancashire. His latest publications are Rite of Passage - A Gravedigger's Memoir and A Kind of Village, both published by Natterjack Press (2015).
thistles stretch their prickly arms afar