Poolside Poetry

By Chas Stramash

Poolside Poetry was written on the beautiful island of Cyprus.

It contains a wide variety of observational and humour-laden poems, like the ones about Helios, the God-like pool attendant, with striking Greek looks and very small... brain.

There’s verse about the suffocating heat and shenanigans around the pool and inside the hotel bar. There’s the visit to the Flea Market, and just across the sea, reflective poetry about the war that raged between Israel and Lebanon at the time.

Poolside Poetry attempts to peel away the different layers of Cyprus's personality and bring it to life. It's a beautiful country with a lot going on, but above all else, the book describes the daily torment and struggle of what it is to be Scottish, pale, and living under a 100 degree sun.

Poolside Poetry is the first in a series of two chapbooks.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chas Stramash
• Release date: Aug 21, 2017
• ISBN: 9781445290874

Chas Stramash

Chas Stramash is a poet.He has been a poet since 2000. Not because of it, merely a coincidence.He started off writing poetry about lava lamps, cows, grass and such like. He now writes poems about places, people, events, observations, countries, politics, culture, coffee... in fact, anything is pretty much within scope these days.His poems are influenced by John Cooper Clarke, Spike Milligan, Luke Wright, Salena Godden, Byron Vincent, and Rick Lupert.Much of his poetry is observational, often humorous, and very often satirical. His work has occasionally been compared with Spike Milligan’s, but he would never entertain the notion himself.He has written one book of poetry for kids, which he takes with him as he travels around the country and reads to the wee people of Scotland, giving out free bookmarks and stickers as he goes.He has published two books of poetry for adults. He has yet to read these publicly but is aching to do so.His books are published by Smashing Press, based in Leith.Chas enjoys walking around Edinburgh, stopping for coffee, eating cheese late at night, drinking in Scotland, Spain and Greece, reading, rabbit taming, tropical fish keeping, good curry houses and music.Chas Stramash is an accomplished fake faller.

Book preview

FOREWORD

Poolside Poetry (and Other Tales of Cyprus) was written during a two week family holiday in July and August, 2006. In Cyprus. Obviously.

We stayed in a large sprawling hotel in keeping with other large sprawling hotels often found across the Mediterranean coast.

Several large white buildings containing hundreds of rooms, surrounding a meandering clear-blue swimming pool was the core of my inspiration. Over 70 poems soon found their way into my notebook along with a mixture of sand, sweat, and the odd splash of factor-30 suntan lotion.

Not all of them made it into the final stages of publication. Many of them are no more than humorous observations about the characters and day to day events I witnessed. Others are more reflective and deep in their portrayal of a country that has seen more than its fair share of tragedy over the centuries. The others were just crap.

There is a wide variety of poems in this book. Such as poems about Helios, the God-like pool attendant, with striking good looks and a very small…..brain.

There’s verse about the suffocating heat, the all-you-can-eat buffets, and of the shenanigans around the pool. The war between Israel and Lebanon being fought at the time is also reflected upon. Then there are the poems about Tracey Tits, but you will read more about those enigmas later.

Cyprus is a beautiful island and its people warm and friendly. As with other places