True To You - Articles, Poems, And Artwork

Morrissey Listeners' Articles, Poems, And Artwork

Thu, 27 Oct 2005 14:29:06 -0400

The Articles, Poems, And Artwork section features articles, poems, and artwork relating to Morrissey.

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Salford Lads Club

Tue, 22 Nov 2005 14:22:31 -0500

Untitled poem

Tue, 22 Nov 2005 11:23:26 -0500

On the dole at nineteen, no place for me.
I was hesitant, clumsy, unsure of what to be.
Forty quid I blew, it was everything at the time,
on a Walkman, which melted, but it kept you in my mind.
Singing in my ears whilst I found out how to paint
and draw and work all hours, officially part-time, so I could claim.
You thought I didn't listen, distracted by the image,
but I heard and understood, you seeped all through the page.
The world fell apart around me, the north of Thatcher's Britain,
they seemed to think "if you kick their heads in, they might forget what made them."
No one seemed too bothered by our grim reality.
Who wants to play the Town Hall? Doris Stokes on endlessly.
You came to remind us who we are and what we could do,
and I packed it up inside me and left for somewhere new.
The art school was beautiful, grade one listed and bequeathed
for that purpose in perpetuity and us alone it seemed.
Writing on the toilet wall, I looked up and shed tears.
My home was written on steel girders where they'd been engineered.
Eventually I left, unemployable to a degree,
and found I'd crossed the country to the ocean from the sea.
Now I'm stalled, exiled, mired and pulled northerly,
your voice still in my head and mining at my quarry.
You pinched my thoughts, you must have done, we're thinking the same lines.
It's been going on for years and I never was inclined
to adore or be infatuated, you mean much more to me.
You're part of my history, beloved to me, Morrissey.

Mac
Barnstaple, North Devon, England

14 November 2004

Tattoo

Tue, 22 Nov 2005 08:30:36 -0500

Someone Somewhere

Sat, 19 Nov 2005 07:00:26 -0500

Reprinted from True To You, Issue 15

I have been listening to Morrissey since the early days of The Smiths. Through the years, he has influenced my life more and more.

With Morrissey, there is no hidden agenda. He does not become a different person at 5:00 p.m. every day. The personality of the man is there for all to see in his songs. He really does as he sings in "Sing Your Life."

I have so many similarities with Morrissey. I was born to Irish parents and brought up in an industrial northern town in Britain. I experienced the Catholic education system, poverty, and what the Tory Party did to Britain in the 1980s.

When I was growing up, books and records had always been my refuge, and again I shared this in common with Morrissey. And, through the years, he has encouraged me to read so many writers whose work I now love and admire, such as Oscar Wilde and A. E. Housman.

As a teenager, I had felt at times that I was plowing a lonely furrow, but Morrissey's music became my constant companion.

One of the main ways that Morrissey has helped me is that he has talked about and sung about loneliness. He has brought the subject into the open. His words on the subject are clarion calls to everyone who has felt isolated and alone.

Many times, when I am listening to Morrissey singing about the subject of loneliness, I experience his words as though he is singing them specifically to me. It is as though he is saying to me that it is OK, and that he feels like that at times, too.

What has sealed my love and admiration for Morrissey is that he is a vegetarian. And I am sure that "Meat Is Murder" has converted thousands to the cause of vegetarianism.

One of the most beautiful and profound experiences I have ever had was when I first listened to "I Know It's Over," and heard Morrissey singing the words "It's so easy to laugh/it's so easy to hate/it takes guts to be gentle and kind."

Morrissey has helped me to feel that I can be myself, and to feel confident in the knowledge that being myself is just fine.

For this, I give him my greatest tribute and thanks.

Johnny Donnelly
Edinburgh, Scotland

20 January 2004

Untitled painting

Sat, 19 Nov 2005 00:09:40 -0500