Category: childhood Page 1 of 2

The Poems of Baz McCarthy

These are a selection of some of Baz McCarthy’s poems. Most poems were written in and around Bristol. He doesn’t like writing at home, he says he needs the flurry of people rushing or sitting around, doing or saying pointless things to fill in their lives…

He’s always been a massive people-watcher and eavesdropper, so if you see some bloke furiously scribbling into his Moleskine on the table next to you…

Completely irreverent and lacking any formal training or respect for anyone who has, he writes from the gut and the heart and performs his poetry in the same powerful, yet carefree manner!

This year, 2023, he’s performed aplenty, around Bristol, in places such as El Rincon, The Bristol Fringe, Coffee#1, Eldon House, Fat Goat @ Jafra and Grain Barge and the poems get honed by audience reactions (shout-out to the many lovely, enthusiastic, patient and welcoming people who suffer at my poetic hands!).

Also, some these poems may well have changed by now and even grown into bigger and better poems, although I’m not saying bigger is always better!

Little sleeping people

By Baz McCarthy

On 26 December 2022

In childhood, love, other people, relationships

Little sleeping people
Not just a childhood
Defined
By
Santa’s boot prints

Mum and dad’s Wellingtons
Across the carpet
Of glistening snow

Glitter powered
Self-raising flower

The door softly
Closing behind

The memory
Of magic deeds

Powering us
Through a life
That needs
Little people
To
Dream

“I met a woman who worked so hard she and her husband only had a little time to pretend to be father Christmas when their kids finally fell asleep but they didn’t just creep in and leave presents, they sprinkled flower and glitter on the floor and used Wellington boots to fake Santa’s footprints there and back.… Read the rest

Erik ate my biscuit

By Baz McCarthy

On 24 December 2022

In childhood

Erik ate my biscuit
A crummy lap
Proof positive
That
Erik ate my biscuit
While I dreamt
Of a Lego lorry
That I could take
Home
Awake

Periodic checks
At the Erik end
Of my bed
The biscuit
Complete
Apart from the bit
I eat
Proof positive

Checking in the morning
Leaning over the
Edge
Of my bed
And feeling under
My bed
For the dream lorry
That I did take
But I can’t fake
Proof positive

One is a dream
In sleep
The other a dream
Of me
I hope
To see
In reality

Now I’m in my 50’s
A Lego lorry
Is not what I want
So I never
Lean over the edge
Of my bed
But
At the end of my bed
Sits a chair
On the chair
Sits a bear
And on his lap?

A memory of my mother’s

By Baz McCarthy

On 26 December 2022

In childhood, dogs, Mum, sea

A memory of my mother’s
Tiny me
Disappearing along the beach
To reach
Other people
Despite my over sensitive reactions
To other people’s vocal actions

“Where’s he gone now?”

I always thought I was shy
But the thought that is mine
Is just mine

If you could still see my little footprints in the sand
There and back
Running away from my family
To other families
Testing them out
To see if they fit
Better for me

Running away but running back
Because
Family is important
To me?… Read the rest