John-Ward Leighton

Photo ©2006 by John-Ward LeightonJohn has been a poet since he was eight years old but it was not something he revealed to the “macho” world of the soldier. Most of the poetry he wrote in the service had to wait until he attained the rank of Corporal in the Canadian Army and had one of the coveted end rooms in the barracks but he didn’t actually write any poetry about service life until some 35 years after leaving the service.
Index of Club Writings
- A Clean White Page of a Day
- A Coffee Time Requiem
- A Day Like Any Other
- A Different Kind of Blue
- A Fly on the Wall
- A Hard Rain Is a Fallin’
- A Kite Eating Tree
- A Long Time Dead
- A Poem For Joe
- A Poem For The Sake Of a Poem
- A Poem Waiting
- A Sound Track Of Memories
- A Street with No Soul
- A Trip to the Library and a Pizza Run
- Absurdity
- Acid Belches
- Addicted or Afflicted
- Afterglow
- Aggravated
- All Fools Day
- All My Best Lines Have Been Wasted
- Alone
- Alone, But Why?
- A.M.
- An Old Hank Williams’ Song
- And So It Goes
- And The Word Is
- Angel of the Toilet
- Another Ten Siren Night: 23:51 Hrs
- Anthropomorphic
- Art on Art
- Artefacts
- Assassins
- August
- Azure, Orinoco, Xanadu
- Back Issues
- Because It’s Snowing
- Belle of the Ball
- Beyond Any Words
- Beyond Reason
- Bike
- Bitter As Yesterday’s Coffee
- Black Dog
- Black, White and Blues: Solo Photographic Exhibition Fund Raiser
- Blah!
- Blank White Page
- Bliss
- Blog’s Last Meal
- Bopping With JJ
- Broke
- Bucket Oh So Sweet
- Buddha
- Buddha at Heartbreak and Pain
- Buffalo Chips
- Bullet Proof
- Burma Shave
- Burn Out
- Bus Stop
- But I Still Can’t Believe It
- Cacophony
- Call the Doctor
- Can’t Sleep
- Can’t Sleep
- Can’t Think Of a Name For It
- Can’t Think Of a Title Right Now
- Carry On
- Casualties (Requiem for Four Fine Young Men)
- Catastrophe
- Caught Between a Smile and the Hard Place
- Celtic Music on the Sound Track
- Cincinnati Taxi
- Classical
- Clip Clop of Her Flip Flops
- Coffee at the Vag
- Coffee Ville
- Cold Comfort on a –2°C Winter Day
- Collision
- Coming Down
- Coming Of Age
- Communication
- Concern or Fear
- Concrete Pillow
- Confessional Hot Chocolate
- Coyote Running
- Crack Dance And Other Observations
- Crank Poet
- Crossed Leg
- Cyberspace
- Damn! Can’t Sleep Again
- Damn, It’s Raining Again
- Dance Zone
- Dancing With Danger
- Dancing With Maya
- Dangerous
- Daydreaming
- Dead
- Dead Man’s Light
- Dead Zone
- Death By Papa Burger And Fries
- Death In The Afternoon
- Delirium at Noon
- Deliberate
- Depression
- Doing My Thing
- Doing the Right Thing
- Dominant Species
- Don’t Die Before You Are Dead
- Dream Sixteen
- Dreaming With My Eyes Open
- Dreams of Susan Sontag
- Dreamscape
- Drifted Away Into Oblivion
- Drive By Lunch
- Drowning in the Clash?
- Drunk on the Funk
- Drunks and Poets Never Get the Night Off
- Dry Well
- DTs
- Easter Sunday Rain
- Echoes in an Empty Head
- Eighteen Gigabytes
- Error 99 (The Poem)
- Eternal Mystery
- Evacuate
- Falling
- Famous Sirens Scream
- Fat Chance: That Idle Thief
- Fate
- Filling In Time
- Finally Free
- Fire Fighters Parade
- Five O’clock Poems
- Flying Rats
- Footprints
- Forgotten Line
- Found Wanting
- Four Gun Coffee Break
- Four O’clock Blues
- Four O’clock Blues
- Fractured
- Fragments
- Freedom
- Friday, Thank the Gods
- Friends
- Friends, Who Knew?
- From The Edge of Sleep
- Frustrated
- Full Gray
- Ghosts
- Gimme Shelter
- Ginsberg’s Melody
- Go Figure
- Good Bye Tam
- Good Bye To Our Youth – Good Bye To Your Shinning Truth
- Good Friday Indeed
- Goodbye and God Bless
- Graffiti, Graffiti, Graffiti
- Greed Is the Only Creed
- Green Onions
- Grey Day
- Grief
- Happiness Is A Child’s Balloon
- Have
- He Won’t Pass This Way Again
- Hello Tam
- Her Name
- Herky Jerky Man
- His Mother’s Eyes
- His Poems of the Past
- Hold Back the Dark
- Home
- Hood.”
- Hopeless, Hopeless, Hopeless
- Horse Shit
- Hot Dog Lunch and Dozing In the Sun
- Hot Pursuit
- How Far Is It To Happy?
- How Many Batteries from Thunder Bay to Vancouver? (Chapter 5)
- Hypnotized
- I Don’t Know What to Say
- I Dreamed About Time
- I Shudder At the Clutter
- I Was Awakened By This Poem
- I’m In A Rat Faced Mood Today
- Images
- Imagining His Own Death
- In A Spider Web Of Memory
- In My Own World
- In the Early A.M.
- In The Liars’ Echo Chamber
- In The Nine O’Clock Hour
- In The Stream
- In The Year Of The Rabbit
- Inspiration
- Interiors
- Interruptions
- Intersection
- Hearbreak and Pain ~ Hastings and Main
- Karma ~ Cambie at Water
- The End ~ Columbia at Powell
- Cussed Out ~ Cross Roads
- When Your Tank Runs Dry ~ Cambie at Cordova
- Rain ~ Abbott at Water
- Alone ~ Alexander at Columbia
- Ciao ~ Powell at Main
- Old Chinatown ~ Pender at Carrall
- Quandary ~ Alexander at Main
- Stunned ~ Pender at Main
- Late Night Radio ~ Cordova at Columbia
- In Haitus ~ Cordova at Main
- Conclusion ~ Hastings at Abbot
- Into Another World
- Into The Abyss Of Forever
- It Ain’t Rocket Science
- It Would Be Funny If It Wasn’t So True
- It’s 7:30 a.m.
- It’s A Bach Kind Of Day
- It’s About Time
- It’s Always Raining Somewhere
- It’s An Ordinary Day
- Its Own Sweet Home
- It’s Quiet
- It’s Raining
- It’s Snowing
- It’s Time To Make The Bed
- I’ve Asked Death Up
- I’ve Made It
- Jealousy
- Jobs I Hate
- Joy
- Joy
- Just Before I Awoke
- Just Before The Music Comes Crashing In
- Just Sitting There
- La Maya Peut-il Sourtir Pour Jouer? (Can Maya Come Out To Play?)
- Lapses In Your Synapses
- Late Night, Early Morning
- Laughter
- Lazy
- Lazy Me
- Lead Balloons
- Legend
- Let’s Dance
- Levels
- Life and Dreams
- Light Fantastic
- Light Fantastic and The Lady Laughed
- Light Rain
- Listening For the Silence
- Listening To Euro Trash Will Do That to You
- Listening To the Honky Tonk
- Little Bobby Zimmerman
- Little Flickers
- Little Known Poet To Being Pop Star
- Losers, Boozers, Drug Addicts, Lunatics and Trash
- Losses
- Losses
- Lost
- Lost
- Lost And Found
- Lost Dreams in a Quarter Moon
- Lost Lines
- Love in My Kenny Cup
- Lovers Between Hard Covers
- Love’s Fire
- Lucky
- Lying
- Memories of Time and Place
- Memory
- Mister Chrome Dome
- Money For Nothing
- Monique’s Dance
- Mourning: A Good Bye For Joe Bageant
- Murphy
- My Best Christmas Ever
- My Birthday Girl
- My Hood
- My Ode To The First Cup Of Coffee
- My Perfect Moment
- Never
- New Digs – The Poem
- New Karma
- Nice And Easy In The Big Easy
- Nineteen Years
- No Dreams
- No Shortage
- Noise
- Not to Worry
- Nothing Works
- Now Look What You Started
- Observation
- Obsession
- OD Fairy
- Ode to a Fiery Toad
- Old Coat
- Old Media
- Old Song
- Olympic Hangover
- On And On
- On the Road to Nirvana
- On The Streets Of Glass
- One of Those Days
- One Thousand Steps
- Other Poets’ Lines
- Our Imagination Trapped In The Past
- Our Lives Are like the Wind
- Out In the Hood for a Walk
- Pete Mitchell Died Today
- Pick Up Blues
- Place
- Places to Be, And Places to See
- Plastic
- Poem Dreaming
- Poem for Heather
- Poet In The Corner
- Poetry And Dreams
- Power
- Priming The Pump
- Promised Poem
- Promises, Promises, Promises!
- Protest
- Puddles
- Rage
- Raggedy Ass Blues
- Rain
- Rain, Rain, Rain
- Rainy Day Blues
- Random
- Random Bit Generator
- Random Trajectory
- Rant
- Read
- Read All the Poetry
- Reflection
- Reflections: “Now”
- Reflections on a “Salty Tongue”
- Regrets ~ On All Fools Day
- Relics of The Past
- Remembering Hank
- Requiem Blues: Index
- Requiem for Al
- Requiem for Bill
- Requiem for Hank
- Requiem for Irving
- Requiem for Peete
- Restless
- Return Of The Ghetto Blaster
- Rich Guy Side of Cordova Street
- Right Brain
- Ringing In Your Ear
- Roam
- Rock And Roll in My Bones
- Rude Lines for Rude Times
- Run On Poem… Chapter 1
- Run On Poem… Chapter 2
- Running Man
- Rust You Can Trust
- Salad Saturday
- Sally Ann Chic
- Same Time, Same Place
- Sanctuary
- Saturday is Dead, Long Live Sunday
- Saturday Morning
- Saving a Line
- Say What?
- Scream
- Second Beach
- Self
- Self
- Sensation
- Seventy-Five
- Seventy-One
- Sharpies and Skid Marks
- She Had To Be In Other Places
- Short Shadows Of Spring
- Signposts
- Silence of the Page
- Silly Little Screen
- Simplicity
- Simplify, Simplify, Simplify
- Singers in the Alley
- Situation
- Six Weird Things to Tell
- Skating
- Sleeps Two
- Smart Ass
- Smokers’ Hell Has Frozen Over
- So Far… So Good
- so small
- So What
- Soldiers of the Heart
- Solitude
- Solstice
- Some Fool Singing in the Street
- Some Lines
- Some More Lines
- Somehow Somewhere
- Something Old, Something New, Something Awful, Something True
- Somewhere I’ve Lost It
- Somewhere Not Here
- Sometimes I Don’t Like Myself
- Songs From Another Time
- Speaking In Tongues
- Speculate
- Spring
- Spring Is Sprung
- Stairwell Poems (The Series)
- Stairwell Poems: Cover Page
- Stairwell Poem #1
- Stairwell Poem #2
- Stairwell Poem #3
- Stairwell Poem #4
- Stairwell Poem #5
- Stairwell Poem #6
- Stairwell Poem #7
- Stairwell Poem #8
- Stairwell Poem #9
- Stairwell Poem #10
- Stairwell Poem #11
- Stairwell Poem #12
- Stairwell Poem #13
- Stairwell Poem #14
- Stairwell Poem #15
- Stairwell Poem #16
- Stairwell Poem #17
- Stairwell Poem #18
- Stairwell Poem #19
- Stairwell Poems: Back Cover
- Starting In the Middle
- Steakhouse
- Steal, Shoot, Deal: Requiem for a Junkie
- Stories From The Past
- Storm
- Strange Places
- Street Singer
- Stuck in This Dream
- Studio Back Door
- Stupid
- Sun, Sunny Day
- Sunday, Bloody Sunday
- Sunday Morning
- Sunday Morning
- Sunday Morning Symmetry
- Sunny Day
- Surfacing
- Surreal
- Surreal Goodbye
- Surrender
- Sweet Hereafter Hereafter
- Sweet Horn
- Take the Long Way Home
- Talking to His Pocket
- Tease
- Temporary
- Ten-Siren Confusion
- Test Flight
- That Have-A-Coffee Blues
- That Is Why I Write
- The Arc of the Diver
- The Best Place in the World
- The Blues Today
- The Boss
- The Buddha at Hastings and Main
- The Chump Change of Dreamers
- The Clouds In My Mind
- The Dance Of The One Woman Flash Mob
- The Day I Died
- The Endless Puzzle of Random Change
- The Evidence of My Guilt
- The Final Getaway
- The Future
- The Game
- The Girl With Eloquent Hands
- The Headache Runny Nose Rant
- The Heebie Jeebie Crank Dance
- The Journey
- The Lady Laughs
- The Levelling of Smut
- The Moon Saw Me Home (2010)
- The Olympic Feel-Good Pooper Is Gone
- The Page
- The Pizza Joint Just Got Robbed Blues
- The Poetry Bug Done Bit Me
- The Politics of Boredom
- The Power of “Thank You”
- The Queen Of My Heart
- The Ride
- The Road
- The Shadow of a Doubt
- The Stranger
- The Tyranny of Reason
- The White Noise Roar
- The Wind
- The Wizard
- The Wounded
- The Writer
- The Yale Project
- Then Spit Them Out
- Things
- Thirty Six LaSalle
- Three Quarter Moon in a Two Bit Town
- To Whom It May Concern,
- Today
- Too Much Information
- Too, Too, Too
- Trajectory
- Trance
- Trash
- Truth And Beauty
- Turn Down The Gain
- Two Best Christmases
- Two-Page Poem
- Two Year Old Files
- Waiting
- Waiting
- Waiting For Godot
- Waiting For the Kettle to Boil
- Waiting For The Revolution
- Wake Up Call
- Wandering
- Wayfaring Stranger
- We Are So Easily Played
- We Are Never Alone
- We Are Not Young Anymore
- We Are The Stories
- We Have Our Doubts
- Weight Loss Program
- Welcome to Planet John
- Welded To My Chair
- Welfare Wednesday
- What Ever
- What Side Of The Moon?
- What Was I Thinking?
- Whatever Works
- What’s Happening?
- What’s Next?
- What’s Next?
- Where Did It All Go?
- Where Do We Go When We Reach the End?
- Where God Lives
- Whipped Cream
- Whispered In the Wind
- White Hot Blues
- White Noise
- Who Knows Where This Is Coming From?
- Why?
- Willie Dixon Is Dead
- Willie Dixon is Dead
- Windows of Time
- Wish You Were Here
- Winter Blahs
- With A Pot to Piss In
- Without Ever Touching Face
- Words Coming
- Wrapped in Dreams