John-Ward Leighton
“JW”

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 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 The Sake Of a Poem
- A Poem Waiting
- A Street with No Soul
- A Trip to the Library and a Pizza Run
- Acid Belches
- Addicted or Afflicted
- 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
- Anthropomorphic
- Art on Art
- Artefacts
- August
- Azure, Orinoco, Xanadu
- Back Issues
- Because It’s Snowing
- Belle of the Ball
- Beyond Any Words
- Black, White and Blues: Solo Photographic Exhibition Fund Raiser
- Bliss
- Buddha
- Buddha at Heartbreak and Pain
- Buffalo Chips
- Bullet Proof
- Burma Shave
- Burn Out
- Bus Stop
- Cacophony
- Call the Doctor
- Can’t Sleep
- Can’t Think Of a Name For It
- Can’t Think Of a Title Right Now
- Casualties (Requiem for Four Fine Young Men)
- 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
- Cold Comfort on a –2°C Winter Day
- Coming Down
- Coming Of Age
- Concern or Fear
- Concrete Pillow
- Confessional Hot Chocolate
- Coyote Running
- Crank Poet
- Crossed Leg
- Dance Zone
- Dancing With Danger
- Dangerous
- Daydreaming
- Dead
- Dead Man’s Light
- Dead Zone
- 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
- Falling
- Famous Sirens Scream
- Fat Chance: That Idle Thief
- Fate
- Filling In Time
- Finally Free
- Flying Rats
- Footprints
- Found Wanting
- Four Gun Coffee Break
- Four O’clock Blues
- Four O’clock Blues
- Fractured
- Fragments
- Friday, Thank the Gods
- Friends
- From The Edge of Sleep
- Full Gray
- Ghosts
- Ginsberg’s Melody
- Good Bye Tam
- Good Friday Indeed
- Goodbye and God Bless
- Graffiti, Graffiti, Graffiti
- Greed Is the Only Creed
- Green Onions
- Grey Day
- Grief
- 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 Pursuit
- How Far Is It To Happy?
- Hypnotized
- I Don’t Know What to Say
- 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 My Own World
- In the Early A.M.
- In The Liars’ Echo Chamber
- In The Stream
- Inspiration
- Interiors
- 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
- It Ain’t Rocket Science
- It Would Be Funny If It Wasn’t So True
- It’s An Ordinary Day
- Its Own Sweet Home
- It’s Quiet
- It’s Raining
- It’s Snowing
- I’ve Asked Death Up
- I’ve Made It
- La Maya Peut-il Sourtir Pour Jouer? (Can Maya Come Out To Play?)
- Lazy
- Lazy Me
- 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
- Losers, Boozers, Drug Addicts, Lunatics and Trash
- Losses
- Losses
- 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
- Mister Chrome Dome
- Monique’s Dance
- Murphy
- My Best Christmas Ever
- My Birthday Girl
- My Hood
- My Ode To The First Cup Of Coffee
- My Perfect Moment
- Observation
- Obsession
- OD Fairy
- Ode to a Fiery Toad
- Old Song
- Olympic Hangover
- On And On
- On the Road to Nirvana
- One of Those Days
- Other Poets’ Lines
- Our Lives Are like the Wind
- Out In the Hood for a Walk
- Pete Mitchell Died Today
- Pick Up Blues
- Places to Be, And Places to See
- Plastic
- Poem Dreaming
- Poem for Heather
- Power
- Promised Poem
- Promises, Promises, Promises!
- Protest
- Puddles
- Rage
- 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
- Rich Guy Side of Cordova Street
- Ringing In Your Ear
- Roam
- Rock And Roll in My Bones
- Run On Poem… Chapter 1
- Run On Poem… Chapter 2
- Running Man
- 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
- Seventy-One
- Sharpies and Skid Marks
- She Had To Be In Other Places
- Short Shadows Of Spring
- Signposts
- Silly Little Screen
- Simplicity
- Singers in the Alley
- Six Weird Things to Tell
- Skating
- Smokers’ Hell Has Frozen Over
- So Far… So Good
- so small
- Soldiers of the Heart
- Solitude
- Solstice
- Some Fool Singing in the Street
- Some Lines
- Some More Lines
- Something Old, Something New, Something Awful, Something True
- Somewhere I’ve Lost It
- Sometimes I Don’t Like Myself
- 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 Symmetry
- Surfacing
- Surreal
- Surreal Goodbye
- Surrender
- Sweet Hereafter Hereafter
- Sweet Horn
- Take the Long Way Home
- Talking to His Pocket
- Test Flight
- That Have-A-Coffee Blues
- 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 Day I Died
- The Endless Puzzle of Random Change
- The Game
- The Girl With Eloquent Hands
- 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 Pizza Joint Just Got Robbed Blues
- The Poetry Bug Done Bit Me
- The Politics of Boredom
- The Power of “Thank You”
- 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
- How Am I Feeling Today?
- Black And White and Blues
- The “Blues” I Choose
- Room Thirty
- Nothing to Do And All Day to Do It
- One Night Stand
- The Waterboys Jamming At the Yale – 1990
- Holes
- Yesterday Was My Lucky Day
- The Nights of Magic
- Piney
- Something Goofy
- First Night
- Home Sweet Holmes
- The Late Great “Gate”
- Write the Words and the Music Will Find Them
- Sun, Sun, Sunny Day
- First Gig
- The Act You Have To See
- Danny “BigDawg” Casavant
- Rehab Blues
- Celebrating One Hundred Years 1889-1989
- Roy Rogers
- Apple from the Tree
- Talent
- Prejudice
- There’s A Hard Road a Coming
- Vancouver Jazz Festival, 1990
- Gospel Music and the Blues
- Blues Break
- Gotcha!!
- Blues Generations
- Summer Time Guy
- Tales of Amos
- The Nightmare Months
- Things
- Thirty Six LaSalle
- Three Quarter Moon in a Two Bit Town
- To Whom It May Concern,
- Too Much Information
- Too, Too, Too
- Trajectory
- Trance
- Trash
- Two Best Christmases
- Two Year Old Files
- Waiting
- Waiting For the Kettle to Boil
- Wake Up Call
- Wandering
- We Are So Easily Played
- We Are Never Alone
- We Are The Stories
- We Have Our Doubts
- Weight Loss Program
- Welcome to Planet John
- Welfare Wednesday
- What Ever
- What Was I Thinking?
- 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
- Winter Blahs
- With A Pot to Piss In
- Without Ever Touching Face
- Words Coming
- Wrapped in Dreams