a shopping list and Lowry in OUTSIDELEFT

Wayne Dean-Richards has shared 18 poems for us to publish during 2023. The collection is called It's a Mad World, But Funny. Eventually there will be a free, downloadable PDF of all the poems and a planned A6 compendium too. (Links to all of the poems way down the page.)

a shopping list and Lowry

my eye is drawn to Flowers in a Window:
the regularity of the bricks,
and no one inside looking out.

meanwhile my head begins the list
of groceries to be got
for the life lived.

in Going to the Match,
the game’s a magnet:
droves drawn in.

always the basics:
bread and milk,
eggs and cheese, greens and tea.

in The Bedroom, Pendleton,
the bars at the foot of the bed,
are reminiscent of jail.

mustn’t forget rice,
pasta, salt, flour,
and Heinz Baked Beans.

the smoky sky of Peel Park:
a series of smudges,
achingly real.

don’t!
forget!
toilet rolls!

in Industrial Landscape: so many chimneys,
but church spires too, and Lowry’s words on the wall,
saying there was no ‘message’.

cleaning products:
cloths and bleach,
some spray to clean the shower.

in Coming from the Mill,
a machine orchestra plays,
heads bend, men retreat as if on invisible wires.

oh,
and a TV guide,
why not?

‘Had I not been lonely...’ he said,
more of his words there on the wall:
LS himself.

cat food:
8,
or 9 tins.

at the Lowry Museum it’s free to get in,
but they ask for a donation,
even give recommended amounts.

there’ll be a bill,
bags,
a regulation wonky trolley.

coming out, the world feels changed:
Man Laying on a Wall one I particularly remember
then, before going shopping, do…

Essential Information
The 18 poems comprising Wayne Dean-Richards' IT'S A MAD WORLD BUT FUNNY series are listed below. Outsideleft published them all throughout 2023 and 2024. A free downloadable PDF and a limited edition A6 Outsideleft Booklet (for neither profit or loss) is available now we are at the end.

Buy A Mad World But Funny from our new otherwise quite empty shop here

Download a PDF version for free here

It's A Mad World But Funny (complete)