Below, you will find a complete a-z list of all the poems that can be found on this website. While some of these poems can also be found in the Showcase and Workshack sections, and a number of them are included in the various chapbook collections, for most of these poems this is the only access to the wider world they will ever have. Please handle them carefully, in case they get torn or damaged. And try not to dislodge too much dust as you browse along the shelves. Thank you, and enjoy.
- A Walk in the Woods (November 2005)
» This miniature version of man - Accessory (May 2006)
» Such a stupid hat.
Included in the collection Poems to Quote to your Lover - Acolyte (January 2006)
» He's tall in his pew, this ladding man:
Included in the collection From Each Skull, A Story - After Class (July 1999)
» After the first class, we went to the bar. Introduced
Included in the collection Play Time - An Office Acquaintance Offers Advice (June 2007)
» He said: love is
Included in the collection Poems to Quote to your Lover - Annie (August 2010)
» Annie sees dragons in all things - Anniversary (September 2010)
» The shock wears thin
Included in the collection To Posterity - Appreciation (August 1992) [video]
» In the kingdom of time suspended
Published in Magma 1 (March 1994).
Included in the collection Play Time - ArcelorMittal Orbit (April 2010)
» It might be a hundred
Warning: NaPoWriMo 2010 draft poem - Art (March 1992)
» It was speeded and slowed:
Included in the collection Play Time - Autumn (August 1999)
» This year autumn arrives in August:
Included in the collection Play Time - Banshee (August 2010)
» She dabs his hot form
Included in the collection To Posterity - Beachhead (May 1999)
» Here lie brittlestars, evicted from deep-channel muds
Included in the collection Play Time - Beko CDA648FS Silver (September 2010)
» My new box sits in a corner
Included in the collection To Posterity - Building for the Future (February 2009)
» Beyond Stratford station's rust fence, - Candle (November 1991) [video]
» In an island of hard-polished desk
Published in Magma 4 (Spring 1995).
Included in the collection Play Time - Caveat Emptor (October 2005)
» 1. An unstrung tennis racket - Chariot (January 2001) [audio] [video]
» In grey overalls, you are the greatest car
Included in the collection 22 Facets of my Father - Choice (March 1991)
» Into the left eye mirrors a desert: - City (May 1994)
» One Tuesday, I tasted a different city: - City Hall (July 2002)
» A welcome now for London's fair unlauded Mayor
Included in the collection From Each Skull, A Story - Cliff (March 2006)
» As the hovercraft puffed its skirts
Included in the collection Poems to Quote to your Lover - Commuting (May 1999)
» Whitechapel, 8:38. We shuffle-pack onto the train, a mix
Included in the collection Play Time - Competitive Plucking (April 2010)
» My goose hisses as I walk the length
Warning: NaPoWriMo 2010 draft poem - Consent (November 1996)
» It is contrived to a practiced degree:
Included in the collection Play Time - Coots (July 2006)
» Look at you, sloven shortwings, your nests
Featured in the Guardian Unlimited Poetry Workshop (July 2006)
Included in the collection From Each Skull, A Story
published in Shit Creek Review, Summer 2007 - Cremations (November 1990)
» The sun has swilled caskets of Spanish wine - Crime of Passion (December 2007)
» He was a rum punter, that one. - Culling a Dog in June (June 2001)
» Put down the messenger, the dog who barked
Included in the collection From Each Skull, A Story - Cusp (November 1993)
» On the last morning of Summer
Published in Magma 1 (March 1994).
Included in the collection Play Time - Dad, Something's Wrong with Nanna (October 2004)
» Son, you know it takes some time to see
Included in the collection From Each Skull, A Story - Daffodil (March 2002)
» $?=-o-wander . ^@lone . +=as . %!cloud . @!self - Daisy (November 1991)
» Where is Daisy's baby?
Published in Magma 5 (Summer 1995).
Included in the collection Play Time - Death (March 2001) [audio]
» I wake to find a ladybird trundling
Included in the collection 22 Facets of my Father - Decorating (December 2001)
» I start with the lights. Good friends I've loved, - Democracy (July 1992)
» I smile to the video in the shop window. - Demolish Dig Design (January 2009)
» Each day a fresh terrain: dirt-yellow ants - Devil (March 2001) [audio]
» Wally's World is a wonder of the art,
Published in Magma 24 (Autumn 2002).
Included in the collection 22 Facets of my Father - Dinosaur (September 1999)
» I have a dinosaur perched in my palm. - Discovery (September 1994)
» This is a strange territory: I met it last
Published in Magma 4 (Spring 1995) - Drafting (March 2001)
» I suppose a pen and a scrap of envelope
Included in the collection Play Time - Driving, not Driven (April 2010)
» Did I notice the signs? Perhaps
Included in the collection To Posterity - East of Islington (December 1991)
» Half-six of an evening and already - Eating Out (February 2007)
» When he laughs his tongue
Included in the collection Poems to Quote to your Lover - Eclipse (August 1999)
» For some you are pretty to look at; to others - Economic Migration is an Eighty Mile Trek (April 2007)
» Economic Migration is an Eighty Mile Trek - Elemental Friend (August 2010)
» Peter watches his lion lie
Included in the collection To Posterity - Emperor (January 2001) [audio] [video]
» You bought the first calculator
Included in the collection 22 Facets of my Father - Empress (January 2001) [audio] [video]
» The night your mum died I slunk
Included in the collection 22 Facets of my Father - Exhale (April 2008)
» And on the last day - - Exhibits (February 2006)
» She was skipping over the rope, her body
Included in the collection Poems to Quote to your Lover - Faith (April 2006)
» His fortune lies in heaps
Included in the collection From Each Skull, A Story - Fallen (February 1994)
» Here lies a church: its bricks, dis-mortared,
Published in Magma 2 (June 1994) - First Love (March 2006)
» You're drowning me: water
Included in the collection Poems to Quote to your Lover - First Night (September 2006)
» It was your eyes that sobered me: ice
Included in the collection Poems to Quote to your Lover - Flame (January 2009)
» Such a brief story - Flaw (November 1993)
» Flaw sits in my cupboards - Float (April 2008)
» She lets the sunlight warm her toes, and beak, - Fool (October 2000) [audio] [video]
» The present you conceived for my mum
Included in the collection 22 Facets of my Father - Fortune (February 2001) [audio] [video]
» I cracked the foundation of mum's love. Ten weeks
Included in the collection 22 Facets of my Father - Foxed Verse (various dates)
A home for the bits of 8 line doggerel I find myself writing from time to time - Fritz: Jan 1986 - Mar 2006 (March 2006)
» I cannot sing for you, my cat: - From the Ass's Jaw (April 2009)
» Do you believe in destiny?
Warning: NaPoWriMo 2009 draft poem - God (February 2000)
» My God has skin that tints alongside time:
Included in the collection Play Time - Gossip (December 2007)
» I heard your news. A quarrel of tits
Published in Magma Poetry 42 (Winter 2008)
Included in the collection To Posterity - Hangman (February 2001) [audio]
» I'm hunting you down - drafting a list
Included in the collection 22 Facets of my Father - Harry (October 1991)
» Harry has found a niche for the afternoon.
Included in the collection From Each Skull, A Story - Hedgeman (February 2001) [audio] [video]
» We wake before dawn, a welcome-mat frost laid
Included in the collection 22 Facets of my Father - Hierophant (March 2001) [audio] [video]
» This morning we work together: I need
Included in the collection 22 Facets of my Father - History (October 1991)
» Here lies the portrait of a woman long lost:
Published in Magma 4 (Spring 1995).
Included in the collection Play Time - Home (March 1993)
» When the wind was warm and the day
Included in the collection Play Time - Hunters (March 1992)
» From the desert brush a dappled cat - Hutton (January 2004)
» Now the fair lord has parsed the story's text and let
Included in the collection From Each Skull, A Story - Ickyu (August 2002)
» You can't go far wrong - In Dark Places (December 2007)
» Cold in the ice - sparkles on needles
Included in the collection To Posterity - In memoriam: Rik's upper right molar (April 2008)
» Chattermay, cattermay, - James (February 1991)
» James watches the monkey organ-chained.
Published in Magma 5 (Summer 1995) - Joke News (January 2009)
» Did you read the news? - Joy (June 2007)
» You're fun! Not as funny as the time
Included in the collection Poems to Quote to your Lover - Judgement (May 2001) [audio] [video]
» This was not the way for a man to die,
Published in Avocado 1 (Spring 2003).
Included in the collection 22 Facets of my Father - Justice (February 2001) [audio]
» On the carpeted court I place the players. First you.
Included in the collection 22 Facets of my Father - Kingfisher Pool (November 1990)
» Once I found a waterfall.
Published in Magma 1 (March 1994) - Language (June 2007)
» So when did we begin to evolve
Included in the collection Poems to Quote to your Lover - Limericks (various dates)
My collected limericks (thankfully not many of them) - Little Arthur (December 2007)
» Now the spore has touched the ant - Locus Delicti (August 2010)
» Would you wear a killer's cardigan?
Included in the collection To Posterity - London (October 1990)
» Should he ever speak of home, - Lovers (March 2001) [audio] [video]
» Your habits are a comfort. Tonight, Tuesday,
Included in the collection 22 Facets of my Father - Lucy Plays with her Friends (April 2006)
» She lines them up in rows,
Included in the collection From Each Skull, A Story - Lych Woman (January 2009)
» They hoist old grandad Clegg
Included in the collection To Posterity - Mad Mary (April 2006)
» She plucks history from the soil -
Included in the collection From Each Skull, A Story - Mandarins (September 2010)
» It takes a squint to glimpse him:
Included in the collection To Posterity - Manhattan Flower (November 2001)
» My tall dahlia. Scythed
Included in the collection To Posterity - Menses (May 1993)
» A new year: my goodwill drains away with the dregs
Published in Magma 2 (June 1994).
Included in the collection Play Time - Monkey Knows All (December 2007)
» Somewhere light-less he shakes a page - Moon (April 2001) [audio]
» You share a little secret with me, a monstrous
Included in the collection 22 Facets of my Father - Morsels (March 2006)
» When I fed you I set you three courses:
Included in the collection Poems to Quote to your Lover - Nonsense (various dates)
a place for my various nonsense snippets ... - Nothing Much (June 2006)
» Look how quiet the room is: a cat
Included in the collection Poems to Quote to your Lover - Novel (August 2010)
» The last word typed, I thank
Included in the collection To Posterity - Oistins on Friday (April 2009)
» Fish scales blue as chop sea
Warning: NaPoWriMo 2009 draft poem - On the Front (Door) Line, 2010 (April 2010)
» They've started already, words
Warning: NaPoWriMo 2010 draft poem - Painting (April 2009)
» Walls are not blank. They soak in lives, each pore
Included in the collection To Posterity - Paradise (August 1992)
» An exile in paradise - Party (April 2008)
» Said the man to the key: - Party Political Fortune Cookies (April 2010)
» Labour: a mass of sweat
Warning: NaPoWriMo 2010 draft poem - Perhaps (January 1992)
» The desk sits square on the side of the room.
Included in the collection Play Time - Plus (April 2009)
» Today I tested positive
Included in the collection To Posterity - Portsmouth Thoughts (February 2009)
» With the marksman's lead threaded
Included in the collection To Posterity - Postcard (October 1999)
» Molyvos must be
Included in the collection Play Time - Priestess (November 2000) [audio] [video]
» A friend of the family had a donkey
Included in the collection 22 Facets of my Father - Priss (April 2000)
» A shadow has stalked from the room,
Included in the collection Play Time - Prophets (April 2009)
» Her pivot is her globe.
Included in the collection To Posterity - Puppy Love (April 2007)
» When I heard that song on the radio
Included in the collection Poems to Quote to your Lover - Relativity (November 1995)
» Today I am left in bed, my head tethered to a pillow by stout phlegm cords. - Renewal (April 2007)
» We severed the band together, took a saw
Included in the collection Poems to Quote to your Lover - Respect (June 2006)
» It's strange how our fingers
Included in the collection Poems to Quote to your Lover - Resurrection (February 2000)
» February: finger bones - Reverie Inc. (April 2009)
» We've assembled a new dream for you
Included in the collection To Posterity - Riot (January 1996)
» The savageness takes me as I step through the door: - Rituals (October 1990)
» Autumn would bring us rituals to school. - Roadkill (April 2003)
» Carhorns on Christmas Eve: a feather slaps the road
Included in the collection From Each Skull, A Story - Rogues (July 2006)
» A grift of sunshine teases bulbs to bloom
Included in the collection From Each Skull, A Story - Scared (March 1992)
» When the angels came to take the world - Search (October 1991)
» I only search for him at the weekend: - Second Sin (February 2009)
» He brings a harsh heat into the room - Serving the Muse (December 2005)
» I chose to dine at A's establishment:
Included in the collection From Each Skull, A Story - Sevenling (as he settles in his pot) (November 2006)
» As he settles in his pot his bones - Sevenling (so the Devil's own cur) (November 2006)
» So the Devil's own cur must hang, his command chain - Sevenling (there are no rules) (June 2006)
» There are no rules for those who wait. - She Forgets and Remembers by Touch (September 2005)
» She hums for Jesus as she cleans
Included in the collection From Each Skull, A Story - Shoes in the Charity Shop (April 2010)
» Like a stack of footfalls they pile in tangles
Warning: NaPoWriMo 2010 draft poem - Shot (July 1993)
» The fox is shot:
Published in Magma 1 (March 1994).
Included in the collection Play Time - Showman (October 2000) [audio] [video]
» I am wonderstruck by the way
Included in the collection 22 Facets of my Father - Sic transit gloria mundi (April 2009)
» Glorious is the cat who's caught - Slap Stick (December 2007)
» Imagine a copse of clown-trees,
Included in the collection To Posterity - Sniper (July 2003)
» Focus just here - I'll frame you in the street.
Included in the collection From Each Skull, A Story - Snowdrop: Introduction and Contents (October 2009)
Warning: very much under construction - Sophie Plays Ouija (April 1990)
» Sophie's dad wants to talk to her. - Spring Haiku (April 2006)
» The arch of the branch - Spring in the Lower Lea Valley (April 2010)
» From tilled earths grow strange plants,
Warning: NaPoWriMo 2010 draft poem - Stanley in Moonlight (June 2006)
» He lopes slow-motioned, each footstride
Included in the collection From Each Skull, A Story - Star (April 2001) [audio]
» Blackmanstone: your first home, a tumbled house
Included in the collection 22 Facets of my Father - Stood outside the office, smoking (January 2007)
» Winter spit taps on my skull:
Included in the collection Poems to Quote to your Lover - Streetlamp Theatre (April 2009)
» Maggie stands tall tonight. - Strength (January 2001) [audio] [video]
» Evening arrives with a clear sky and a hard frost
Included in the collection 22 Facets of my Father - Summersex (June 2007)
» We step barefoot across the still-wet humps
Included in the collection Poems to Quote to your Lover - Sun (May 2001) [audio]
» You made me in the end. You found
Included in the collection 22 Facets of my Father - Sustainability (July 1999)
» I wake, dead. Five foot six
Included in the collection Play Time - Take this Man (January 2007)
» I married you on a couch in Clerkenwell,
Included in the collection Poems to Quote to your Lover - Temperance (March 2001) [audio]
» Winter Sundays are the best time. I rise
Included in the collection 22 Facets of my Father - The Cartographers (March 2006)
» You promise me treasure, offer
Included in the collection Poems to Quote to your Lover - The Case of the Man Who was Dead (April 2009)
» 'Come,' she says. 'I'll show you
Warning: NaPoWriMo 2009 draft poem - The Charity Collector (January 2005)
» She stands in the wind with a tin in her mittens
Included in the collection From Each Skull, A Story - The Ewe Seeks Her Lambs (April 2010)
» She has the prim hips of one
Warning: NaPoWriMo 2010 draft poem - The Intelligent Designer (September 2005)
» It starts as a web of dimensions rolled - The Knife (August 2006)
» She's messed me up, again: my shiny blade
Included in the collection From Each Skull, A Story - The Lammas sun has gone (September 2007)
» Beyond the glassed face, fish
Included in the collection To Posterity - The Levants (October 1991)
» Sayeed is the checkpoint leader: - The Long Draft (September 2010)
» Did you hear - The Micro Mule (August 2005)
» There must be laws against this sort
Included in the collection From Each Skull, A Story - The Momentary Meanings of Hugh (April 2006)
» He knows the mirror lies. - The Obligatory AZ Poem (April 2007)
» April blossom comes - The Office as a Form of Inspiration (July 2005)
» These angularities that pin me in
Included in the collection To Posterity - The Place Maker (April 2006)
» I met Mother Drum when she came for beer,
Included in the collection From Each Skull, A Story - The Production Line (April 2005)
» Within the workshop: - The Shoppers' Choice (April 2010)
» My weighted basket
Warning: NaPoWriMo 2010 draft poem - Things I Love About My Bed (September 2010)
» The bole of the headpost has faces
Included in the collection To Posterity - To Posterity (February 2010)
» I am not your friend.
Included in the collection To Posterity - To the Victors, the Spoils (January 2009)
» Sprinting to work, late like the binmen, I spill - Token (March 2006)
» I buy a rose to mark
Included in the collection Poems to Quote to your Lover - Tower (May 2001) [audio]
» The martello gun points to France, a long
Included in the collection 22 Facets of my Father - Trade (June 2007)
» You grab my hand and net aside
Included in the collection Poems to Quote to your Lover - Trafalgar Week (August 2006)
» Dancers on the stage built beside - Transaction (March 2006)
» My friends ask me: how much does that special smile
Included in the collection Poems to Quote to your Lover - Traveller (May 1994)
» To remove the shirt as Man examines,
Included in the collection Play Time - Trespasser (April 2003)
» My Gran, she warned me of you:
Included in the collection From Each Skull, A Story - Uri (February 1991)
» Uri slides motionless across the curve of the skies, - Vampyr (June 1999) [video]
» Dogs have knocked the coffin down
Published in Magma 18 (Autumn 2000).
Included in the collection Play Time - When the Battle Ends (April 2006)
» Look out of the window: see how
Included in the collection Poems to Quote to your Lover - Whitehall (April 2006)
» When I walk drunk through Saint James's Park
Included in the collection From Each Skull, A Story - Wild Shannah (November 1989)
» She would mock the betrayal of the storm - Woman and Man in Traffic, Imagined (December 2007)
» Meanwhile let's talk - Workout (January 2009)
» Health - an exercise - Worlds (May 2001) [audio]
» A long while later I found
Included in the collection 22 Facets of my Father - You'll Never Guess What (April 2010)
» This story comes from the mouth
Warning: NaPoWriMo 2010 draft poem
Copyright notice
Please be aware that all the poems on The Rikverse Website are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License, unless otherwise stated. In essence, this means that you are allowed to copy, distribute, display, and perform these poems; however you must give the original author (that's me, Rik Roots) credit, you may not use this work for commercial purposes, and you may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.