Julie McNeill, our Poet In Chief, welcomes you to ‘The World Home of Football Poetry’. The Hampden Collection is the world headquarters of Football poetry with a collection of poetry from the finest football poets on the planet.
Julie was the Hampden Collection Makar for the SWNT Poet’s Society and started Braw Words to promote the voices of the football bairns. She is the poet in residence at St Mirren FC CF, the only female poet in the world attached to a professional football club.
Her debut poetry collection ‘Ragged Rainbows’ is available through Dreich Publishers and she has also co-authored a book for children and families with dyslexia ‘Mission Dyslexia’ published by JKP Books.
Julie says ‘it’s a great honour to follow in the footsteps of previous Hampden Collection poets Jim Mackintosh and Stephen Watt who have done so much to nurture the Hampden Collection Poetry offering. This is a unique and important collection and I’m delighted they have entrusted me with it. So – send me your poems, be part of the story…the greatest story ever told, the birth and life of football itself and the celebration of all its highs and lows.’
You can follow Julie on Twitter @JulieMcNeill1 and her Facebook Page @thesoulscribbler
THC18 – small acorns
I wonder if they knew it –
those eleven Queen’s Park men
who played at West in a nil-nil draw.
Mist hung low the night before
the clans gathered in celebration.
A glow from pitch-side flats now spotlights
this ground, long since settled underfoot.
Sure of its place in the history books
as the birth site of Pioneers and Professors.
Great Grandsons walk their ancestors’ steps
and children run excitedly to re-enact
the match that changed everything.
Listen closely to the mist-whispers.
Each one, an acorn, a trusted single seed
to anchor our game.
Branches now strong enough
to hold the disappointments
and the shards of pure, unadulterated joy.
Deep roots sustaining new ways of playing,
doors coaxed open
for fresh shoots in grassroots
and the boot marks made
by the Scotch Professors
are still running rings around the globe.
by Julie McNeill
(Celebrating 150 Years of International Football on St Andrew’s Day 2022)
THC17 – WE ARE SCOTTISH FOOTBALL
We are in it for the big games
We are saving our lucky seats
We’re securing the season tickets,
the transfers
We are new strips revealed
We are the buzz of club signings
We are ‘It’s going to be our year’
We are staying off the bottom
We are summer games
and mid-week nights under the lights
We are VAR – aye right!
We are derbies, away days
fixtures in the back of beyond.
The road trips, the packed bus
the snacks
the tunes
We are ‘Could we just nick it,
if we get an early goal?
We are the upsets
the underdogs
We are that beautiful overhead kick
We are ‘That was rubbish
but same time next week, yeah?’
We are avoiding play-offs
pitches – pristine and waiting
We are that glistening net
the shine off the brand new ball
We are new managers
breaking in the new boots
We are looking over our shoulders
checking the six o’clock
to get to the top six
We are the pies!
We are phone-ins
opinions
panels
What’s your point caller?
We are the armchair experts
the bar-propping scotch professors
We are the unbeaten run
the clean sheet
We have Europe in our grasp
We are full crowds
packed out
We are ‘Refereeeeee!’
“Offside, surely!
We are going to do it this year
We are the new songs
the big drums
the Frost bitten toes
the Squeaky bums
We are extra time
just in time
down the line
he’s off his line
out of time!
We are the highs and lows and anything goes.
We, are Scottish Football
by Julie McNeill
THC16 – From Hampden park with Heavy Feet
We had 90 minutes to prove it
we were practically a shoe-in
the flights were booked
for Qatar and Cardiff
just 90 minutes to do it.
The Tifo Saltire glistened proudly
we were freed from desire
the blue and white
the blue and white
this was going to be our night.
But then came the blue and yellow
the flag we’ve all been rooting for
and despite a rally at the end
we just didn’t make the score
the sun shined down upon their glory
as we tasted the defeat
dragging bucket hats and scarfs and flags
from Hampden Park with heavy feet.
But today we dust them off again
today we hope for something more
today we tell ourselves
we’d rather go to Germany than Qatar.
by Julie McNeill
(Post Match Scotland v Ukraine; and ahead of Scotland v Armenia – June 2022)
THC15 – Pass it on
We are nothing without someone to pass to
an open foot bent to cushion the ball
or a hand to raise up when we inevitably fall
because everybody falls.
The twelfth man or woman
to heat up the car, to get us there,
no matter ow far, to dab the skint knees
or give us a much needed ruffle of the hair
the power is always in the crowd
willing us on.
In the numbers standing proud.
We are all guardians of our history
and as the magic of our game
sweeps us all away
it’s our job to remember the build up.
To remember where it started
Who started it
Where and when
and then
to take it as far as we can
before raising our heads to pass it on,
because we are nothing without someone to pass to.
by Julie McNeill
THC14 – Echoes
On Glasgow’s Southside
by a rose scented garden
a man waits patiently
for the post.
Too afraid of the echoes
he walks from Cathkin Park
to the cricket ground, to
Hampden and back
to the old bowling club
to the pavilion, to the beginning.
It’s in his hands, now
and so with trepidation
he tears the envelope open
and scans the railway map inside
fragments of legends gather
from across the decades
the way shards of iron
bend towards a magnetic force.
They form the words that change everything
‘football ground’ he smiles,
right here by the railway line
as sure now as the earth beneath our feet.
by Julie McNeill
The Hampden Collection 