To mark National Poetry Day 2024, poet Charlotte Oliver has kindly allowed us to share her wonderful poem, My Friend, Prince.
My Friend, Prince
By Charlotte Oliver
We were inseparable,
you filled my ears, my t-shirt fronts,
genius musician who was instrumental
in the education of my soul
in the ways of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.
An alien from somewhere exotic,
a planet, purple-paisleyed, circled by rings erotic,
Disney doe-eyes, fuzzy top lip,
often naked but for a riff
of quietly groovy body hair
accompanying the eye
steadily
down
there.
You were frozen over spilled CD shells
in my beloved Fiesta’s footwell.
You defined cool
(you still do)
despite having the same name
as owner-matching Alsatians with chains,
on our old estate’s far side
that I liked because it smelled deep-fried.
My friend fancied you but I did not,
you were a bit pervey and too short
but (as a friend) I loved you
and still do –
how you match and raise my moods
with your soul-touching, rocking tunes,
always with a streak of rude.
With your funk and your spunk,
I’d have liked to pop you in my pocket
where you’d have made mischief
with my hankerchief.
You funky little cock,
strutting and rutting over the stage at Maine Road
where you were even tinier.
An assured lover stroking guitar strings
until they rang out,
sang out.
My indignation at so many others there too
– how dare they love you?
You were only ever a thought or button-pressed away,
and then it snowed one April day.
You died,
I cried
and sometimes still do.
I miss you
and all that was left to learn.
The day I don’t move my feet
to the opening bars of Alphabet Street
is the day I die too.
About Charlotte Oliver:
Charlotte Oliver’s poems have been published widely in journals and anthologies including Black Bough, Icefloe, Dreamcatcher, Green Teeth, Spelt, Neurological, One Hand Clapping, Poetry Pea and The Storms. She won 2nd prize in Indigo Dreams Autumn Poetry Competition 2022, Runner-up in the 2022 Wirral Poetry Festival Prize, Commended in Lord Whisky Poetry Competition 2022 and 2023, and Highly Commended in the Patricia Eschen Poetry Prize 2022. She was shortlisted in the Yeovil Literary Prize 2023 and her poem ‘Unboxed’ was chosen by Candlestick Press for inclusion in their ‘Christmas Walks for Rosy Cheeks’. Charlotte was lyricist for ‘The Dark Store’, an Arts Council-funded radio ballad and was an Ilkley Literature Festival ‘New Northern Poet, 2023.
Charlotte regularly leads poetry writing workshops. She works with both primary and secondary schools and a number of community groups including home-schoolers, MIND and Carers Plus, as well as running family drop-in sessions.
For more of Charlotte’s poetry, please visit her website
