Chasing patterns around the ceiling

candle flickering

in the half-light

Chasing patterns around the mind

with myself dickering

hunting for the right

Chasing patterns around you

so little bickering

you’re a delight

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Climbing in a rare window

of good weather,

good meaning merely hostile not lethal,

through a window

into the Death Zone;

through a window

into an insane dream-world

where nothing is normal,

the mind cannot think or remember,

the brain cannot function.

There is only the divine obsession, the Satanic compulsion.

Base Camp. On a hot day, the Gilkey memorial is od...

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All the entries received votes and favourable comments, especially Lady Ha Ha's, but the top places go to two entries which were both typically naughty.

1. Harry O'Neill - Touching...and Going http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=39693

2. Isobel - Touch and Go http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=39416

Well done Harry, you certainly brought ...

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Last day to cast a vote and so far the voting is 'interesting', There have been six entries in the competition, so not too many to read -

Lady Ha Ha - Touch and Go http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=39651

Harry O'Neill - Touching...and Going http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=39693

Graham Sherwood - Event http://www.writeo...

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It's time to vote!

There have been six entries in the competition -

Lady Ha Ha - Touch and Go http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=39651

Harry O'Neill - Touching...and Going http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=39693

Graham Sherwood - Event http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=39686

Cynt...

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This is a reminder about the current informal competition. Only Izz and Barrie have had a go so far - it does need a few more of you to make it viable so why not have a go?

The theme is 'Touch and go'. Given the time of year, if someone wants to vary that along the lines of 'Light blue touchpaper and retire', feel free. The poem, or poems, have to have something, however tenuous, t...

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Four years old, 

meandering Marksies with mum,

following the fancy of his feet, 

the manikin sees the mannequin.

Is drawn, fascinated.

Stands before the bikini-clad female figure

as if in worship.

Reaches out and touches.

Touches the cloth,

touches the naughty bits,

the .....would you call it skin?

His mother, my daughter-in-law,

is splitting her ...

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This is a poem by my 7 year old grandson Callum Bradley

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Many of us have enjoyed the informal competitions which have run on WOL from time to time. The last one (Izz's 52 Hertz) was won by Cate, who has given the green light for another, so here goes. 

The theme is 'Touch and go'. Given the time of year, if someone wants to vary that along the lines of 'Light blue touchpaper and retire', feel free. The poem, or poems, have to have someth...

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I'd never noticed she was left-handed

or how clean were her fingernails

or the repairs on her threadbare, faded robe.

Never noticed her luminous eyes.

Never saw their desperate tears.

Never looked at her properly at all.

Non-person.

The woman with the flow,

made unclean by blood,

now touching the robe of the man

who makes us clean with blood,

some sa...

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It's Thursday morning in Asylum Link.

The English class has a visitor,

Community policeman Phil.

Kindly, friendly Phil.

His honest face has our attention.

He smiles, they smile, we all smile.

Roads – safety – cars – safety -

licences and rules – safety – bikes – safety.

How to be safe, in a nice warm voice

in a nice, warm country.

Good old Phil.

Ra...

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He put into words What cannot be put in words. What a poet he was.

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Highly plastic

undifferentiated

capable of becoming

ready for transformation

for self-renewal without rejection.

Multipotent, pluripotent, totipotent.

Potent.

Straining with potential.

Quivering with power

for endless differentiation

for blessed regeneration.

What would it be

to be a stem cell?

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Grim mouth on sweating grim face

all concentration,

he crouched above the tandem's handlebars,

a hero

pedaling for England.

Grim mouth on grim face,

all concentration,

she sat absurdly upright behind him

with her phone

keying for England

The bike? Thousands.

Hundreds for the lycra, super-helmets and super-shoes,

so impressiv...

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Speaking with the quiet voice of death,

each August, mum would say

those wasps

I'll get a jam jar out.

The top would be pierced

with the round, grey knife sharpener.

I liked doing that,

it was satisfying

to make the hole,

the hole of death.

It would work.

The wasps would enter entranced,

tempted, bewitched, seduced

by the sweetness wi...

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It's a lark, it's a hoot.

Wonder Woman is a wonder.

Superman is super.

Batman is bats.

The Hulk is colourful

(but so is everyone).

Noise and bubbles and costumes and smiles.

Drums, cameras, banners and signs.

"Some Chistians are gay, get over it".

"Jesus had two dads and he turned out fine".

We plodded along.

God plods.

Let's plod like God.

Pl...

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A little pebble

Dropt into so small a pool.

Such enormous waves.

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Death – boundlessly voracious.

Removing players

from this vast, unlikely, untidy theatre.

Life – boundlessly fertile.

Creating players

for this tidy, astronomically surreal stage-set.

Me. I am alive, and therefore

curious.

Curious about you, death.

What lies backstage?

If life is to be trusted, then so is death.

This womb-Earth, Heav...

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Liechtenstein, Jersey,

Delaware, Guernsey,

Campione d'Italia, Monaco,

Netherlands Antilles, Curacao,

British Virgin Islands

and US Virgin Islands.

Sark and Switzerland,

Labuan and Netherlands,

Bermuda, Panama,

Seychelles, Bahamas,

Jebel Ali, Isle of Man,

San Marino, Grand Cayman,

Turks and Caicos, Gibraltar,

Luxembourg, Andorra,

even Irel...

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I keep arriving in the present moment

but whoops there it goes again.

Arriving doesn't stay put.

Is it impossible to really arrive in now?

As to that

I've not arrived at a conclusion

I am here.

It's somewhere I've arrived at

but orbits and galaxies and all space are moving.

Relatively. Relativity-ly.

So here is gone.

Whoops there it go...

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You weaklings,

who are not proper men at all,

are you proud of the black eyes?

Are you pleased when she cowers?

Cowards.

Little men with big fists

and no hearts.

Little boys

with your tantrums

and your egos to protect.

No-one's interested in your whining excuses.

Argument losers, hopeless boozers -

pathetic.

Or using God as a reason for brutal...

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The party

tests everything.

Everything you've been and done and thought and lived

since the last one.

And again

you fail.

And discomfort creates another space for truth.

Extrovert friends become enemy.

Life accelerates for them,

an oasis of delicious chaos.

Their eyes and bodies and spirits dance.

You are pleased for them.

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It's not the days

it's the minutes.

The days can be managed

to have shape, content

interest

emotion.

But the minutes can be hell.

The wolf howls at the moon

circled by Command Module pilots

so far from humanity.

Six lonely men, enduring their forty seven dark minutes.

But even they were loved.

Their lives had flavour,

they knew the intimacy...

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Street pastor Polly

guides a wobbling passenger

onto his bus.

The girl fumbles for her purse

which will not be found.

And he frowns -

He has a daughter that age.

Polly takes the fare

from the plastic bag of donations

given by the respectable concerned.

The girl is crying.

Somehow she found a seat.

He sees her weeping in his mirror.

Into fi...

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One swan is worth fifty sparrows

Three eagles for thirty blackbirds

and one jackdaw's worth five robins

For swan, read Brit

for sparrow, Syrian

for eagle, read Yank.

Blackbirds are Iraqis

The jackdaw's an Israeli

and the robins Palestinians.

Dead good isn't it.

Dead simple

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Jostling egos demand a hearing.

Who is listening?

or enjoying?

Scribblers desperate to win, to be read.

Who reads?

or appreciates?

Here is my book it's only three pounds

to buy, I wrote some at

workshops, more on a weekend course, and

did you hear

I won a competition, and

I was second in a slam, and

I had two guest spots last month, and

...

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Cor looks great

Nice n juicy

Nice n straight.

Yum – unblemished,

Will be good for me.

Yeuk – looks nobbly

Some bits are bad

Some bits are bobbly.

Poo – blemished,

Will be bad for me.

Idiot.

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A housing officer twenty two years

Seen it all

I saw her tears

for a tenant's dismay.

Where are the poor to find

Eight, nine pounds a week?

Out of their mind?

Government are out of theirs.

Smaller places are not there

or cost more.

Do they think, do they care?

Doesn't seem so.

The party of the family, how sick

No equal marria...

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The wise are concerned

It will soon print a gun.

The police are wondering

what's to be done.

Forget the gun

Print me a friend

and print us a dance

to dance to the end

Print me a soul

and please be so kind

as to print it a body

and print it a mind.

Print me some passion

Is it too much to ask

that you print me some...

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The Cat Competition result is as follows

1. Nick Clifton 'Cute and Slim'

2, Greg Freeman 'The Cat, the Damselflies and the Deer'

http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=34007

Congratulations to Nick and Greg, worthy winners,  who can now nominate charities to receive £10 and £5 resp...

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The Cat Competition deadline was extended to the 9th and there are now 6 entries. In the past people have said it's difficult to look through over 20 poems. No excuses now – 6 is easy!

If you would like to vote, this is how it works

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Errors, slips, cock-ups, mistakes -

the glory of inglorious failures

which say I'm alive

trying, living, risking, giving

with a busy life and a

fizzy spirit and a

dizzy mind,

it's whizz bang whoops.

There goes another one.

If no-one gets hurt

I give myself permission to make more.

Well, that's my mistakes.

Yours are another matter.

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A couple of WOL's hardiest veterans have spotted that the competition has attracted just 4 entries and have said strongly that the deadline should be extended (you know who you are and thanks for the interest!)

Therefore, to celebrate a cat's amazing possession of 9 lives, the deadline will be extended to 9th Feb (a Saturday). As well as the original themes, the poem may also be about or co...

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You jumped the queue, Mike,

took the lace out of your shoe.

Came unhinged, used the door hinge.

Cared intensely.

It all ended in intensive care.

Last time. End of time.

You set sail away from this strife-life

On the sea of non-life, after-life.

Sailing speaks of a surface

and staying on it.

God, we did.

Oh Mike, we stayed on the surface.

If only w...

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Pot? Weed?

Talking rubbish? 'Oddle Poddle'.

Always happy, grinning inanely,

flower power, up to mischief.

More to Bill and Ben

than meets the eye.

Why was Slowcoach so slow?

Cos he was a tortoise?

A likely story.

And just who was Dan the Potato Man?

"I think the little house knew something about it,

don't you?"

Yeah, right,

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The Last Kiss

The early morning tangle on the pillow

 where she slept.

Her fingers softly curling round a treasure

which she kept

Enmeshed within this living cage, lest it

should fly away

And leave her only memories of such

a perfect day.

The palest hint of colour tinged her cheeks

like sunrise now.

Dark lashes fringed her eyelids – slende...

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Many of us have enjoyed the informal competitions which have run on WOL from time to time. There may be some interest in trying again, so here goes. 

The theme is either "Cat out of the bag" or "Cat among the pigeons". The poem, or poems, have to have something, however tenuous, to do with one of these themes.

It should be blogged in January. It would help if it was t...

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