From London to the Mersey: A Poet Who Found His True Home
A certain magic happens when someone arrives in Liverpool and instantly feels at home; it’s as if the city has been quietly keeping a seat warm for them. For Colin Watts, that moment happened half a century ago, when he swapped London for the banks of the Mersey and immediately sensed the pulse of a place that runs deeper than postcodes or accent.
His poem Songlines is, in many ways, a love letter to that feeling: to the people who make this city function, flourish and fight on, even though they rarely receive the spotlight.
Watts understands Liverpool not as an isolated port but as a crossroads, a place forever in conversation with the world. His poem pushes back against the old cliché of an inward-facing city by reminding us of the global threads woven through its streets. From the echoes of American folk and rock that shaped its soundscape to the ebb and flow of people arriving, leaving, returning or, like himself, settling for life, Liverpool stands as a living, shifting chorus of stories.
Songlines traces those movements, recognising the unsung individuals who hold it all together: workers, dreamers, grafters, migrants, musicians, the everyday architects of civic soul.
And then there’s Colin himself: eighty-two, still cycling across the city he adopted, tending an allotment, hosting open mics, and writing with the observational precision earned from decades in community development and adult learning. His voice carries the tone of someone who has listened deeply: to conversations in back rooms, to laughter echoing off Georgian brick, to the songlines that run unseen beneath the pavements.
In Songlines, Watts doesn’t just map Liverpool; he tunes into its frequency. And in doing so, he invites us to hear the city anew, not as myth, but as music.
SONGLINES
I need help singing this city, call in
the experts from across the Pond.
We’re a bit of a boy-gang: The Boss,
me and Woody, Bobby Dylan.
Guitars and harmonicas blazing.
Reclaiming the mean streets.
From merchants and slavers.
From landlords and jailers.
From bankers and bailiffs.
From judges and sheriffs.
On behalf of the dockers.
The seamen and stokers.
For the clerks and the typists.
Shop assistants. Machinists.
For the can-lads and messengers.
The drivers and passengers.
For the servants and cleaners.
Street women. Street traders.
From Everton to Kirkby.
From Anfield to Wembley.
From Hong Kong to Chinatown.
From Toxteth to Freetown.
From Mann Island to Ellis Island.
From Liffey to Mersey.
From Speke to Fazakerley.
From Pierhead to Netherley.
City of coming and never going away.
City of leaving and never coming back.
COLIN WATTS
