Remembering Tom Leonard
Remembering Tom Leonard – a brilliant uncompromising person – here’s Fiona Karen Alexander reading his The Six O Clock News …
Remembering Tom Leonard – a brilliant uncompromising person – here’s Fiona Karen Alexander reading his The Six O Clock News …
We don’t take any advertising, we don’t hide behind a pay wall and we don’t keep harassing you for crowd-funding. We’re entirely dependent on our readers to support us.
Don’t miss a single article. Enter your email address on our subscribe page by clicking the button below. It is completely free and you can easily unsubscribe at any time.
Perhaps our most important legitimiser of the freedom to express yourself in your own tongue. There are spurious tests the likes of Darren McGarvey do not have to sit because of Tom’s life. Great work.
Really sad news. I have so many favorite poems of his but the one I keep thinking about is the ‘Liason Co-oridnator’which always make me smile – as someone who worked for years in the ‘poverty sector’, I can relate to this on so many levels:
The Liaison Co-ordinator
Efturryd geenuz iz speel
iboot whut wuz right
nwhut wuz rang
boot this nthat
nthi next thing
a sayzty thi bloke
nwhut izzit yi caw yir joab jimmy
am a liaison co-ordinator
hi sayz oh good ah sayz
a liaison co-ordinator
jist whut this erria needs
whut wi aw thi unimploymint
inaw thi bevvyin
nthi boayz runnin amock nthi hoossyz fawnty bits
nthi wummin n tranquilisers
it last thiv sent uz
a liaison co-ordinator.
Sumdy wia digree
in f*ck knows whut
getn pyd fur no known whut thi f*ck ti day way it.
I once told Tom Leonard that as a social worker I had had this poem on my wall; he responded that many social workers over the years had told him the same thing. So sad he is gone.
I was fortunate to meet him a few times and spend a wee while together. So sad to hear this news. But what an honour to have spent time in conversation with such a man whose poetry will live on and how fortunate for those yet to discover him. Vale Tom
Trenchant, witty and intelligent with a strong sense of compassion. He leaves a great body of work behind. We’ll miss him. Condolences to Sonya, who was at his side throughout.
Yes, sad to hear he’s gone. I’m quite new to his work.