The Living & The Dead
Thursday 31st March 2011 9:52 pm
Also by Tom Harding:
Afternoon Novena | Endless Talk of Floods |Narci
“If I dyed my hair red,” She cooed,
“The sun would be jealous,
and dip her fingers into herself.”
He felt the swish of her hair
as she crouched to stroke the lake;
a smudge of strawberry on his cheek.
She grated the moon’s reflection with her hands
and sighed,
“see how pale my arm is in the night”
and bit her hands together like a dove.
“Some...
Thursday 31st March 2011 2:40 pm
Also by Marianne Daniels:
The Burnt Bee | It felt like a long winter. | Merlot | Booklover | Cerebratorium |Mumbling thoughts
Mumbling thoughts
Subtle corruption
A social disease
Lifes disruption
Manipulating good qualities
Saints to sinners
Good to bad
Low lifes to winners
The sane become mad
That is the world today
Something no one can explain
An unknown force makes a play
In what is slowly turning into a catastrophic chain
Wednesday 30th March 2011 8:00 pm
Question 17
Question 17 on the census form “is left intentionally blank.”
Pull the other one: there was a question there once.
Do you surreptitiously pick your nose
when you think no one is looking?
Do you have trouble sleeping /
get up in the night at all hours,
worrying about things left undone,
or things you did, and shouldn’t have?
Are you happy in your job/ ...
Wednesday 30th March 2011 10:04 am
Inward Reasons
`
On a hand-hewn pedestal
imagination coalesced;
on milk-white face alight
eyes sparkle with a liquid flame.
Some build ivory towers,
these hands raw from driven labour,
on scratched cheeks a stricken eye
ransoms a sculpted orphan dream.
Across time and Middle Sea
another calloused hand chiselled;
laughter on a pine-white...
Wednesday 30th March 2011 9:53 am
A man after my own heart
An ‘I want U’ loveheart, I thought it was cute
at first, but now I have uncovered the truth
it wasn’t a gesture intended to be sweet
instead you just saw me as something to eat
I was totally wrong to think it impressive
that’s you’d offer take me shopping for dresses
to think I’d end up in Topshop was just plain silly
you meant to say dressings and were thinking sweet chilli
yo...
Wednesday 30th March 2011 8:36 am
Learning To Read
Learning To Read
Words abandoned me
When I were at Primary
Didn’t make sense no more
Like when me Dad and me
Made up stories
And created crazy characters
Like Fezzypeg
Who me Dad said were a cat
That owned a record shop
And talked and walked on his hind legs
And though I couldn’t always keep in mind
Everything I was told at other times
A...
Wednesday 30th March 2011 12:44 am
Also by Gemma Lees:
Learning To Read |Steak 'n' Blow-Job Day
(I don't often do political stuff)
I stood opposed to this in every way -
That’s Cameron’s threat to public holidays;
The essence of the Tory plan’s
To undermine the working man
And scrap one Labour first began
That’s in the month of May.
My views have changed though now, I have to say,
Once the explanation came my way;
The new alternative’s...
Tuesday 29th March 2011 11:52 pm
Also by John Coopey:
Ken Dodd's Dad's Dog's Dead | I Dreamt You Were Little Again | The Wars of the Roses (Battle of Towton) | Mi Firstest Poems | Works of Art | Fix |And what will be then?
What will be tomorrow?
Tomorrow will be April.
Hearts will be struck by the love arrow,
They will not be stable.
So, what to do now?
Is it just natures caprice?
Allow your feelings be somehow avowed!
Don’t let your feelings to crease!
Look for the truth in the gentleness of spring!
Ding, ding! Listen to the bells ring!
Forget the trouble...
Tuesday 29th March 2011 10:12 pm
Also by Larisa Rzhepishevska:
SPRING | World Poetry Day | EVERY FRIDAY | Once Upon a Time In America | My Way | LIFE |Delivery
Oh look! here comes the postman
With letters in his hands.
I hope he's brought something for me -
More red elastic bands.
Tuesday 29th March 2011 10:00 pm
Also by Dave Carr:
Natasha |Anish and the Moon
There was a stone in the lake
And the moon in my hand
There was a stone in my hand
And the moon in the lake
I threw the stone and it became the moon
as it solidified in the water's space
Its mirror a world of twisting creatures,
all skin and fin; water bodies
I threw the moon and it became a stone
A pitted rough hewn chunk
as real as touch, its pres...
Tuesday 29th March 2011 3:52 pm
Summer of Love
a flashback
sun splattering us in technicolour,
stained with light
cheekbones aching,
currents thrumming
migraine hue at the edges
hearts beat faster
minds and eyes pinpoint
to infinite acuity
heads swell with
chests strain from
and laugh
Steps slapping
rhyming
heads back and
smiling.
Tuesday 29th March 2011 1:13 pm
The Uninvited
Where's your mask baby?
You've come out from behind
that tarnished glass,
and your dying inside,
with your matchbox ticky tacky relationship,
and you pretend you don't want to run and hide.
So you play here.
Between the pages of the love
you never had,
always wanted,
but never had.
And you put on your strongest faces
trying to push me away.
Because I scare you.
Be...
Tuesday 29th March 2011 2:43 am
'New and invigorating ways to erode' - or 'the brain is impressively hard to control'
The brain is impressively hard to control
And I find that very comforting.
It is easy to worry about our masters
They only want the best for us.
So when I find that they are finding NeW aNd InViGoRaTiNg WaYs To ErOdE mE
I do not worry
I am unique
As it is me that allows them to do so
And unlike the lab rats and the fruit flies
We aren’t stuck in cages
We are free
To con...
Tuesday 29th March 2011 1:34 am
Tricky Mickey
Mickey is a geezer with suitcases galore
With the kind of stuff you find inside your nans utility draw
Like a pair of garden shears that ain’t been used in years
A slightly rusty door handle and cotton buds for your ears
He flogs them down the market to tourists and the like
He’s Mickey to his mates but to the fuzz he’s known as Mike
The corner is his office where ...
Monday 28th March 2011 10:22 pm
Also by Jack Pascoe:
The Big Society |Up on the Roof (Strangeways)
By all accounts It was little more than a protest. By all accounts It was little more than a protest But all I saw was The slates been Tossed off the roof. All I could hear was Them crashing Onto the floor With a element of surprise And the buzz of the guards Who were running Around below Like headless bees. All I c...
Monday 28th March 2011 9:35 pm
Also by Andy N:
Spring is Coming |Plum blossoms in snow
Plum blossoms in snow
Like a character from a Murakami story
Mr Nagata looks into the embers of his dying fire
And remembers.
Mr Nagata surveys the familiar images
And pulling the sack around his shoulders
Takes another sip of Ballantynes.
There is the girl who he tries to forget
Her black hair bobbed
Her white neck polished.
Mr Na...
Monday 28th March 2011 9:27 pm
Morton Arms Live- Guest Poet....Isobel!
Great poetry and acoustic music night- Tonight 8pm!
The Morton Arms pub- Pasture road- The Wirral
CH46 7TQ
Guest Poet
WOL and Wigan's finest- the Iridescent!
'Isobel'
Guest Musician the Soulful, the Sanguine, Liverpool's own
'Matt Reekie'
Open mic poetry -
A couple of first come first served musician slots too
Free Raffle-...
Monday 28th March 2011 6:01 pm
Unemployment in Northern Ireland
I've written this about the rising unemployment in Northern Ireland and the severe consequences of it. This is what the future will look like if we don't do something about it:
Monday 28th March 2011 10:16 am
The Student
Ten vodka bottles line her window ledge
at various stages of emptiness.
A report of some sort clings to each neck
measuring degrees of drunkenness.
She studies alone, these experiments
must be free from external influence.
Last night she finally drank to the dregs
and threw her conclusions up over the bed.
This morning she's doubting the evidence;
scientific ...
Monday 28th March 2011 10:10 am
when that daylight hit us again (inspired by Gareth Writer-Davies' Junk poem)
them rattling dirty hours
when
night melted away
and
the sun boiled up
and we were
there
inside
ripped
torn
straight off the
bone
them days were
hard
but essential
deadly but
so on fire
them days were
slow and
vicious
new and
easy
we were doing something
inevitable
reaching ou...
Sunday 27th March 2011 11:22 am
Also by David Mac:
The End of my Soul on Saturday Nights | After All The Fucking Shit Has Already Fucking Hit You | Buy Me Books, Buy Me Books | For You, Babe | The Night Mare | Why Do You Want This Job? | Our Poems | Someone’s always trying to take over the world | Life Bores Us All To Death |No Jobs For A Man
Sunday 27th March 2011 2:03 am
Also by Dave Dunn:
Stars Would Gladly Cast Their Gleam | The Mortal Shore | I Miss You |foxheart
Fox curls round
a rosequartz heart
in my garden.
Above her head
a rose is planted,
two dusky poppies
fresh from their pots.
Soon, around her heart
they will entwine
their roots.
In summer
we’ll remember her.
Saturday 26th March 2011 8:51 am
Also by Ann Foxglove:
warningwolverine | on waking | museum diary part 2 | kingfisher stripe | little dog digging | rabbit | total immersion | angels in ealing |A selection of words
These are my most recent poems. They don't feel as good as some of the stuff I wrote about a year ago but thought I would share on here to see what people think. I'll post my older stuff at some point as well.
I guess these are inspired by the pressures of life and the expectation to be successful. And not forgetting love. And how it is absent. Enjoy.
Oh WELL, OH well, At le...
Friday 25th March 2011 8:32 pm
Also by Martin Miles:
Trembling Hands |How Can god Be When Spring Rains
Clamour of light
Aborted logic
From the severed objective
Plume of confusion
They call saviour.
I have read the book.
That standard manual
From which they hold it all
And I became bleach eyed
By it's discrepency.
There is nothing to say
But therefore.
And all our papered thoughts
Creased in the fold
Of their following.
...
Friday 25th March 2011 12:50 pm
Also by Kealan Coady:
Health | Natural Disasters And Nuclear Foreplay | Interview. | Existentialullaby |Old Alfie
OLD ALFIE
Poor old Alfie,
Was so un'ealthy,
'e never watched 'is 'ealth,
'e buys dog food,
For 'is doggy,
But 'e eats it all 'imself.
So 'is doggy,
'e gets 'ungry,
'an 'e eats Alfie's bed,
Now when Alfie,
Gets un'ealthy,
'e got nowhere to lay 'is 'ead.
(c)Ledger de la Bald
Friday 25th March 2011 9:29 am
Routine is death; Death is routine
Leave home eight fifty five arrive nine twenty six
Leave home eight fifty six arrive nine twenty seven
Leave home eight fifty seven arrive nine twenty eight
Leave home eight fifty eight arrive nine twenty nine
Leave home eight fifty nine arrive nine thirty
Leave home nine o'clock die in head-on smash
Leave home one minute past nine arrive ten thirty two
Delayed...
Wednesday 23rd March 2011 10:06 pm
Also by Dave Bradley:
Our secrets | No point; point | Sausages | The Poem |Abstract Notions
There is an itch in these veins.
Blood once flowed to seek fairer lands.
Existence was not enough to tame us.
At edges of cliff tops, towards riverbeds we yearned,
reaching out towards Lincoln green pastures.
Were once we painted with primary colours.
Barefooted, engulfing dissected oxygen,
We mix strife and strain with acid rain.
No freedom in minds...
Wednesday 23rd March 2011 9:58 pm
Litany of Lovers
The first boy I kissed was a kind and courteous youth
With a motorbike and leather jacket he came across so smooth.
Our chaste late teenage romance seemed to feel like love
Til I left for study and he found someone else.
The second third and fourth have vanished without trace,
No memory remains; not a name nor a face.
The lips of this young lady always willingly upturned
...Wednesday 23rd March 2011 2:13 pm
Home
The bed blankets greet me soon after I'm back,
The sweet-spicy smell of chai tea is coming from the kitchen,
The carpet cushions my footsteps when I awaken
To go into the sitting room
I nearly never attempted to fathom,
How some so despise being in one place,
A call: "Collect your thoughts and valuables,
And leave them in sight of only you."
A perfect...
Wednesday 23rd March 2011 9:15 am
My book Air of Fall
Have a look at my book and any feedback appreciated , had a problem with the link but if you go to www.lulu.com and search air of fall will see it immediately
Monday 21st March 2011 6:43 am
FLOUNDERING
FLOUNDERING
Unabating
memories
scathing
if they could fade
disappear
into deep twilight's shade
I'd find rest and relief
yet my waiting's in vain
skies are moving
clouds
gathering
grey
overwhelming
constantly hovering
they catch my eye
they leave me floundering
...
Sunday 20th March 2011 3:05 pm
alpha et omega
smoke signals
The coffee pot’s down
to grounds and dregs,
the cognac bottle’s
now the worse for wear.
He counts each crossing of the legs
each slow blink,
approving laugh;
tests the warmth of every smile,
notes each surreptitious lick of lip;
decodes the semaphore
of each flick of hair.
She feels the hours grow smaller,
sees the pa...
Sunday 20th March 2011 2:51 pm
Just Being Real
I can say I love you, I won’t ever hurt you.
We will never grow apart, fall apart, I’ll never break your heart.
I can tell you I will give you the world and more.
I can sing your praises till my throat gets sore.
I can say everyday will be better than the one before.
I can make you believe I will never walk out the door.
I can talk a load of crap if that’s what you...
Saturday 19th March 2011 7:09 pm
Also by Paulyn Lloyd:
Bitch |Cruel Dream
I could feel the pain
tearing through the fabric
of my body.
Red waves of tears crashed
upon the floor.
I screamed,
and my scream responded.
And life was placed within my arms.
Future shined in brilliant eyes,
and love held my heart.
But as fast as I could
breathe,
my baby was taken away.
Where I was in life,
I could not survive
nor care for another
without drown...
Friday 18th March 2011 10:40 pm
Acoustically Speaking
Friday 18th March 2011 7:13 pm
Also by Alain English:
New Gig | Gigs this Week |Nagasaki Shadows
Watching the ocean cherryspit villages across the fields
And spew the wreckages of an age into the Kyoukai
Where the flotsam and the derelict are indiscernible
From the hoardings and the fabric of the cot, the house
The workstation and the supermarket fittings
I can’t help but think that
If the waves keep rolling, rolling
Rolling on
They would be strong enough
To wash away the...
Thursday 17th March 2011 3:18 pm
The One That Got Away
Look at me you little shit!
Why can't you accept the words
i want to fit, into the bowels of my history.
What is it you are trying to say?
Show me in words of more than one syllable
if you want my undivided attention,
don't grab me by the throat!
Tease me to please me.
Kiss me and whoosh my soul.
Fill me to thrill me,
caress me with rhythmic c...
Thursday 17th March 2011 2:12 pm
Teenage Kicks
Littered with dirty knickers surrounding the small single bed
Emulsified woodchip, singular layer, outlines the shape of the head
Snagged flannelette, stained cotton sheets; quills in the quilt hypodermically sharp
Secretions are smeared on the nest of this bedding; trails of tears are quickly absorbed
Borderland door is daubed in hot red, black marker pe...
Wednesday 16th March 2011 4:04 pm
Also by Laura Taylor:
Cycle Haiku |the perfect word
he raised himself
to see her face
you look – seraphic -
he said
she could not yet speak
she knew
the word was perfect
- gods and angels -
and still
the word whispers
through her mind
still
Cynthia Buell Thomas
Wednesday 16th March 2011 10:36 am
Also by Cynthia Buell Thomas:
Trilogy of Heroes | Tiny Talk |It's all just words
Words on paper
Born: sign here
Words on paper
Love: Marriage: sign here
Words on paper
Careers: Paycheque: sign here
Words on paper
Tortured mind leads to me writing poetry
Words on paper
Death certificate
How insignificant
Words on paper
Tuesday 15th March 2011 9:42 am
Also by Melanie Coady:
Bastards | I Want to be you | goodbye | Goodbye Childhood | How Will I Feel Today? | How We Met | One Day | Pathetic | My Flower | It is the way it was | Silly Girl | Born Anyway | You | Beautiful You | The Rant Of A Mind Deserted |Human Nature
How easily the mighty fall
no metal strong enough
to front the fury of this sea
no weight great enough
to stand its own ground
no house safe enough
a home to be
and yet the trees, stand still
rooted to the planet’s core
blinded to the fate of man
deaf to Nature’s angry roar
Bag the bodies
count the heads
tsunami tears
the walki...
Monday 14th March 2011 10:52 pm
Also by Isobel:
Something Old, Something New |Breakfast Roll
wake to a new
tsunami
out of
wholewheat flakes
towers fall
buy bread
a bomb
milk
...
Sunday 13th March 2011 1:10 pm
Uncle Ned
Yes I remember Uncle Ned, a short man stout and round.
Born and bred in Lancashire, where men like him are found.
Though manner bluff and hearty, and accent slow and thick,
His tack sharp mind was canny too, he didn’t miss a trick.
He owned a shop down Ashton way. His main job was to stock it
If any pennies were found short, they weren`t from Ned`s own pocket!
Out...
Saturday 12th March 2011 3:54 pm
Dry
Gentlemen,
the toilet seat to lift,
you must try.
Keep Ladies Bums,
nice and dry.
Friday 11th March 2011 8:19 pm
THE UNCERTAIN NARCISSIST
The liquid thought
of girl on girl on girl
excites!
delights!
the straightest lad
in spite
of his misgivings
for similar forbidden
acts
he might attract
from other males.
For after rugger
a damp towel may plummet
revealing
appealing
tensed muscle
melting
the sternest resolve
with actions bold
he may
...
Thursday 10th March 2011 5:42 pm
Mr and Mrs
They walk around together
Never apart
Minds demented
From a broken heart
She was only thirteen
Grandaughter Lisa
When a paedophile
Left her to die
In a skip she was found
Gagged and bound
Her immature body
Tortured and wrecked
He sits in his cell
Looked after well
Three meals a day
And plenty to say
About his PRE-DICKAM...
Thursday 10th March 2011 4:20 pm
Sitting Safe In Ignorance Was the All That I Expected
Sitting Safe in Ignorance Was the All That I Expected
It’s not that I’m not liked,
It’s not my haggard features that once were fair,
What it is I state is collusion in destroying integrity and Truth,
What it is you can’t accept is the life that I have lived,
For it pales your own existence into a nothingness of lies.
...
Thursday 10th March 2011 8:40 am
Also by Noetic-fret!:
Down the Rabbit Hole |
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