"John lives in Ossett, West Yorkshire. He has been a teacher, lecturer and LEA Adviser for Drama and English. he has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Leeds, but learns much more from The Poetry Business and all the poets he has met there. His poems have appeared in 'The North', 'The New Writer', and 'The Interpreter's House', among others. He was First Prize winner in the Lumen/Camden Poetry Competition (2014) and of The Plough Prize (2013). His first collection of poems , a chapbook: 'Running out of Space' was published in April 2014, and his second, Larach was published by Wardwood in November 2014."
Bric a Brac, by John Foggin
My one grandmother made roses
out of paper, wrote nasty letters
with a fountain pen and violet Quink.
She had a tasseled, velour tablecloth
whose colours changed and flowed
like barley in a breeze: green and purple,
port-wine red like the teardrop flasks
in chemists shops. And the paperweight.
It filled both my hands. A cool glass lozenge.
Like holding water if water could be still.
I liked its smoothness, and the aquatint
of Blackpool Tower inside. The spidery
rollercoaster, delicate Big Wheel.
I can turn it in one hand.
The colour's faded - merest pinks, blue-greys.
Stopped somewhere between wars and out of reach
it grows remote and pale, The Pleasure Beach.
(from Backtracks)
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