I’m still trying to process all the politics that has gone on since the Referendum. There seems to have been far too much news and most of it bad. Things have been happening so fast that it’s hard to keep up, and even harder to stop and think about what one’s reaction is. The death of Jo Cox MP, as she served her constituents in Batley and Spen, hit me pretty hard, as have all the other senseless shootings, and knifings, and the use of a truck as a weapon in Nice. So I wrote a poem that shows me thinking about why these gunmen, who seem both to be deeply troubled and radicalised, do what they do, and why the ever think it is going to do any good, or further whatever twisted cause they espouse. I found a home for my poem with Marie Lightman’s new anthology, Writers against Prejudice, which I am sure is going to feature some wonderful and thoughtful poems over the next few weeks. I’m delighted to have the honour of providing the inaugural poem in that anthology. Thank you, Marie!

Here’s a link to the poem. For Jo Cox.