John Clarke renowned for his performances on the London poetry & jazz scene - jcjazzman is a real presence on stage and on the page. His new and selected poems - ghost on the road - is a must for any jazz/beat fans.
publications:
jazz & other religions
ghost on the road
Tichnoch, Cabinteely, Poulaphuca
(Three villages in the Dublin mountains whose names
my father would quote repeatedly like a mantra)
It was always Cafolas on O’Connell Street
for the ice cream and the jukebox with those
wall-mounted selectors, Formica furniture bordered with gleaming silver.
We’d spend what seemed like hours
inside that dazzling cathedral of a place
where none of the customers
put on painful airs or graces.
A dark-suited tousle-haired Glaswegian
stooped saying; so ye like the Everly Brothers
then laddie? in rhetorical fashion
after the duo’s syrupy harmonies
poured out into a dreary Dublin afternoon.
Johnny he’s a joker, he’s a bird…
such a funny joker…. he’s a bird dog
it’s where you go where nothing ever happens:
Tichnoch, Cabinteely, Poulaphuca.
Sometimes I view my life as a storm
trying desperately to blow itself out
Tichnoch, Cabinteely, Poulaphuca
Tichnoch, Cabinteely, Poulaphuca.