TOM KELLY was born in Jarrow in 1947 and his poetry,  prose, plays, lyrics and musicals have appeared 
 on Radio Four, BBC TV, albums and in many UK magazines including, Stand, Rialto, Other Poetry, 
 Headlock, The Yellow Crane; Smiths Knoll, Iron, Red Lamp, Envoi and in the pamphlets 
 ‘Their Lives’ from Tears In The Fence; ‘In The Distance’and ‘That Time Of Life’, KT Publications; 
 ‘John Donne In Jarrow,’ Here Now; ‘Poetry from the North East’, Raunchland Publications.

 TV/ Stage work includes KELLY a musical with Alan Price, the subject of an Arena Documentary; 
 TOM & CATHERINE, a musical with John Miles and THE MACHINE GUNNERS, another musical 
 written with Miles’ and staged at the Edinburgh Festival. 

 Most recently SECRETS and LOVE IN NE32 a series of plays staged at The Customs House, 
 South Shields, which won over critics and audiences alike and broke box office records.

 He has only just completed a new musical DAN DARE (with music by John Miles), which will be
 staged at The Customs House in March 2003.
 		
 He now lives in Blaydon and works as a Drama Lecturer at South Tyneside College and is married 
 with three children and two cats. He is a lifetime Sunderland supporter.
 


               I Never Thought

 I never thought I’d be visiting you like this:
 a carrier bag, aerosol of pledge, water in a bottle.

 I never thought it would be like this, at a garage,
 buying flowers, carnations that you always loved.

 I never thought it would be, if I have time,
 after work, before another drive home.

 I never thought I’d be alone in an empty car,
 a bag of mixed blessings juggling in the boot.

 I never thought or believed this would be me,
 I can only imagine that you would feel the same: strange.

 I never thought I’d be driving through the gates
 and down the slow path to your graveside.

 I never thought there’d be days when I forget you.
 I never thought, I never thought, until now.


 ‘The Excellent Will Be Permanent’ 
  (Aristotle)

 I’ve had my hand in fire.

 I’m cut, aching. My teeth are clamped.
 The headache’s fixed,
 flagged across my skull.

 Clichés, catch phrases, inhabit me,
 “it takes time”.

 You will be remembered,
 recalled.
 Your loss batters me.

 Loving you brought the greatest joy,
 losing you fills my mouth with acid.



 The Ring

 There’s a ring in a box,
 I see it on your crumpled finger,
 ruby red, bold
 and you were dying.

 There’s a memory in that box
 and I recall it
 fresh as a paper cut,
 smarting at the edges.

 There’s a message
 half-finished on a wall,
 making no sense,
 words abandoned,
 for some reason 
 we will never  know.

 There’s a tangled up dream,
 I can’t put your finger on the ring,
 it moves away 
 like you.



THESE POEMS ARE TAKEN FROM THE SAND PUBLICATION 
THE PICTURE FROM HERE