A BREAK UP MESSAGE

This is the hardest message I have ever had to write. But what else is there to do when, year in, year out, I seem to have put in all the effort, only to get slapped in the face in return?

   You’ve shown but glimpses of passion and hope, only to unleash, interminably, a perennially unwinding spool of pain.

   I’ve tried my best, over all these years. The countless times I have defended you, when all others wouldn’t. Well, enough is enough. Enough has to be enough.

   What are the options, when all the labour seems to flow one way? What’s the point anymore?

   I’ve been psychologically and emotionally maltreated, and I have to conclude that there is no other choice than the decision I have, after much painful deliberation, finally reached.

   We must break up.

   Part of me feels sorry, but then another part of me feels that it is you who should be sorry; that I am being gaslit into feeling an emotion that is not rightfully mine.

   Anyway, for what it’s worth, I am sorry. And I’m sorry that a message that is supposed to be so meaningful has ended up so lacking in eloquence.

   I guess I am also sorry that I am airing this dirty linen in public, online.

   Well, I am a writer after all, and what do writers do if not bare the very depths of their souls, their innards, their viscera?

   So, there it is then. I am breaking up with you.

   This is my break up message.

   Farewell, Tottenham Hotspur FC.

A PASSOVER PRAYER

Moses, why don't you

Open the Strait of Hormuz?

Let My Oil Go!

Joshua Seigal 

Together

I told you I was scared that the world

was going to collapse and you suggested

we go for fish and chips on Sunday night. 

I said I was worried about global tectonics

shifting beneath our feet and you said

there was a free stand up comedy show next week. 

I told you that America is abandoning NATO,

that Article 5 means nothing anymore,

and you told me about a cool novel you’d read.

I said I was living in a constant state

of dread, looking to ChatGPT for answers. 

You asked what I wanted from Tesco.

How to express my love for you? 

It is wider than the Straight of Hormuz; 

more powerful than Putin’s bombs.

Joshua Seigal 

Joshua Seigal Featured in 'The Week Junior' Magazine

I was extremely excited when I heard that the prestigious childrens' magazine The Week Junior wanted to do a feature on me and my new book, I Tell Myself I'm Awesome. Check it out, below: 

The Fraud

It’s very easy to write a poem

about love. It’s also easy to write

a poem about how hard love is. It’s

much harder to live love. It’s even

harder to live love when love itself

becomes hard. On those days I just

sit staring out the window, not writing,

feeling like a fraud. A fraud with no

words left to say, whose previous

lines have dissipated into dank

meaninglessness. I once wrote poems

about how love is great and life is

good. Well not now, it isn’t. Not here.

This is the kind of love that’s hard

to talk about. Leave me alone.

Don’t talk to The Fraud. Don’t go near

The Fraud, lest you yourself become

a stitch in this new tapestry. Best

simply to leave The Fraud be. He’ll

come back around, eventually.

Joshua Seigal 

Fantastic poems from Springfield Primary School

Ms Godfrey from Springfield Primary School recently got in touch to say that her pupils used my poem 'Just a Book' (which you can find on my website) as inspiration for their own poetry. I was delighted to receive a selection of poetry, which I am equally delighted to share here. Well done everyone at Springfield!!

Making Them Laugh

I hold up a picture of my cat.

This is my dog! I say.

They fall about laughing.

It’s a cat! they all shout.

No it’s not, it’s my doggy! I insist.

They think I’m the funniest person

in the world –

some kind of comic genius.

Next I hold up a mango.

Pineapple! I say.

Mango! they all shout.

Again, they fall over themselves

in fits of giggles.

Strawberry? I ask.

Mango! they repeat.

They find this hilarious.

The funniest thing ever.

After the show, backstage,

she asks if I’m OK.

I’m great! I say.

Doing really well!

But there’s no one there

to laugh at the joke.

Joshua Seigal