On Christmas Eve

when every shop is shut

every thing you ever dreamed of

bought, stacked, unpacked, wrapped

every thing you couldn’t buy a distant memory

everything you meant to buy a shrugged shoulder

every card sent, every penny spent

every child snuggled warm in sleeping bed

On Christmas Eve

when every last thing is said and done

there is a speci...

Read more …

If you enjoyed the poem, you may like to listen to the song, recorded with my 2 lovely sisters and one niece.

Merry Christmas everybody!  xxxx

Read and leave comments (8)

You tell me I live on a different planet,

smiling, the way you smile

and sadly I agree

for when I look beneath

the earth is black,

my feet rooted to its soil

and when I look above

I see one moon,

waxing to a waning womb

and all around me vast skies,

peppered with my dreams,

every star I ever wished on

cold and dark and distant

as I breathe

...

Read and leave comments (7)

All things considered,

applying logic and reason,

it’s a no brainer,

a dead cert

the right path,

the only path,

for you. 

And so…

I’ll gently sift and sort your clothes,

fill too many cases,

snap too many locks,

push you to the future

like some ship to sea,

watch vapour trail disintegrate

through cloudless sky, 

wave cheerily,

...

Read and leave comments (8)

‘How to rouse a teenager

whilst running late for work,

without incurring

cerebral haemorrhage’

I could write a book about it…

‘Give me a cuddle’ he says

all 6 foot, 17 years of him

It’s an excuse

to delay the act

of getting out of bed-

and I know it

‘D' you think I’m made of love?’ I say,

hurdling the unwashed undies

littering his floor.

Read and leave comments (15)

All I need is love

love to fill the empty space

space is all you need

Read and leave comments (18)

And I would breathe life

into those lips that once kissed,

colour to the face that smiled,

bathe those sightless eyes with tears,

hydrate the ravaged corners of your mind

And if the drip of all my anguish left you still,

empty shell of all you were, no more

I would care for you in death

just as I cared for you before,

gently thread your hair with tender...

Read and leave comments (15)

Do not bring flowers to my grave…

Instead, donate the funds to Cancer Research

- if I die of cancer 

to Alzheimer’s Association

 - if I die of senile dementia

to Cats Protection

- if I die childless and alone

to Salvation Army

- if I die homeless, out on the street

(though the collection may be light)

If I die from a stomach split with hunger

co...

Read and leave comments (7)

I drank in the Original Oak today,

reflecting on how a lifetime slips away,

along with a bowling green, a hall of residence

and Jack Fulltons

(the cheapest frozen food stall in the whole of Leeds).

The pub was empty,

but in my mind I saw a crowd,

the bold and the beautiful,

strutting their stuff,

whilst I watched on,

the younger me,

all acne and...

Read and leave comments (13)

Somewhere
out there
beyond the grey
there is yellow
orange, gold,
or so I’m told…
A circle, a closed loop
a hoop, a disk, a ring
a very precious thing,
the most common non polygon,
metaphysically and righteously speaking
'Gone, Gone, Gone, Go-o-o-one…'
This ball of molten gas and fire,
I think it’s called a sun
yes a sun, a sun it is,
I know it’s there

cos I re...

Read and leave comments (10)

Empty toilet rolls

were plentiful,

as was newspaper,

so we applied Val’s rules

to personal craft,

shredded the sheets

of Fleet street,

soaked its words

with water

(or some such fluid),

carefully applied its strips

to gaps and cracks and fissures,

mashing and moulding its messages

to a different base;

sticky back plastic

free of charge.

Read and leave comments (17)

At Christmas we’d lay down our arms,

sing Silent Night,

break bread and wine,

play football with the niceties,

pass salt along with pleasantries

pretending we were both the same.

But New Year always hung upon the dawn,

its fireworks heralding

some new offence…

Caught in shell shocked torpor,

through the mist of battle pall,

your lights winked at...

Read and leave comments (15)

She pleads for time to say a prayer,

and stay the hand that snuffs the light,

impatient for closure on this day.

Amidst the chaos of her toy strewn bed

I watch the silent murmurings of her lips,

sweet incantations of her faith,

finger to finger to palm pressed palm,

forehead, stomach, left breast, right

she crosses them all,

whilst I look on,

struck dumb ...

Read and leave comments (14)

I am steam on an open window

footsteps in a blizzard 

receding swell

of a punishing tide

the kid gloved hand

of a self that died

peddling scraps

to those who’d be fed

hiding horizons

from those who’d be lead…

Insidious as a risk assessment

my bullet point well punctuated

I don’t bite the bullet

I don’t site the bullet

I load the stin...

Read and leave comments (10)

Sorry to brag - but I'm just so proud!  Wanted to share a poem with you that my 10 year old has just written (in all of 5 mins).  I know the site is for adults - but it is good to know that we have some very keen young uns champing at the bit to join just as soon as they are able...

If Life Was a Book

I wish my life was a book

To be opened, closed, put down

Fixed in reader...

Read and leave comments (18)

I deleted my inbox today

the inbox, the outbox

the sentbox, the drafts

at the click of one finger

gone.

I am virus expunged,

no horse left to hide in

house keeping done

history wiped

rationalised,

purged, purified,

sanitised.

Now I’m light as the ether

all albumen and froth

floating in my own fluid

the past, a severed cord

Read and leave comments (18)

It’s as easy as breathing, I say

Taking big, bold, billowing breaths

If you let yourself go

In out, in out

(No nasty innuendo please…)

I could do it on a high wire

A pile of plates on my head

Or jumping off a cliff

Elastic band round my ankle

The endomorphins flow

As I blow, blow, blow

I’m a whale

Snorting the salt

On a clear blue sea

Or a...

Read and leave comments (11)

( A poem for Dave Bradley's challenge)

If only life were a matrix,

the best moments freeze framed,

caught in the film of an eye,

the heat of one touch,

and all the bullets side-stepped

extracted, taken out

plopped like teeth

on a silver salver;

no gas and air

no gaping gum,

just a vacuum

packed

with all the precious time.

In re...

Read and leave comments (12)

Flashing blue Lights

You pull me over

Bawl me out

Driving without due care and attention

A danger to all around me

Guess I was pushing my luck

Cutting up a copper

On a roundabout…

‘Wing mirrors are made for looking in

Sat Navs an idle distraction’

I listen to the lecture

Shake in my boots

Bat my eyelids

The hint of a tear

All pouting...

Read and leave comments (11)

It is so much easier to say ‘I Love You’

The words flow easy from the tongue

Honey from a stick, water from a spring

No need for even words

A look, a kiss, a touch…

Much harder words that spell the end

Acid pear drops melting on the tongue

Icicles to stone

Calcium deposit

Mounted on a rocky roof

Stuck fast

Warm lips cool

Paint themselv...

Read and leave comments (8)

We found you

plastered to a concrete drive,

acute angled, feet drawn,

rapid breathing

beneath a hot baked sun…

You’d landed somewhere hostile,

a dad, ruffled by things that flap,

children unversed in basic care.

And so we scooped you up,

took you to our hearts…

No-one sent a rescue helicopter.

The vet, disinterested in your plight

advi...

Read and leave comments (11)

May was a great month for poetry with many commended poems worthy of clinching WOLOP.  However, one poem stood out very clearly as WOL’s favourite blog of the month.  That poem was ‘Visiting Neil’ by Anthony Emmerson, based on a true story that touched the hearts of all who read it. 

Essentially about the loss of young life in tragic circumstances, the poem is made more poignan...

Read and leave comments (8)

May was a good month for poetry, though dominated to some extent by the Pandora project.  As usual, a few controversial poems, a few controversial poets, the occasional fistycuffs in discussion -but nothing I'll waste time raking over.  Out of 440 poems posted, just 29 poems were selected – so well done everyone who made the list!

The new voting system, where everyone is allowed 5 nom...

Read and leave comments (2)

(I took the Jackie Hagan challenge - check it out in Features - but only if you are into self flagellation)

You taught me how to…

Cope – inner shells don’t crack

Share – bounty and the lack

Understand – ‘I’ is not all

Sing – every clamoured curtain call

Yawn – the written word evade

Laugh – through errors gravely made

Cry – at life unspent, expired

...

Read and leave comments (9)

Where do we begin, indeed?  Pandora’s Box surpassed our wildest expectations, providing all with a selection of thoroughly entertaining poetry. Opened on May18th with an inauspicious walk down Gropecuntelane, the box closed on May 30th, shut tightly by the hand of Epimetheus himself!  Between those dates 26 of our finest poets pitched in to thrill, enthral, amuse, bewitch us all, each with thei...

Read and leave comments (17)

Mind over matter

is the key

and so

with will of iron

Epimetheus

unwishes  

the ills that she set free.

The world implodes

to fill an empty cask

tossed like flotsam

to a hostile sea

heavy lidded

sealed with sorrow

weighted with

unspoken words -

the water swallows…

Trembling from exertion

relief pervades

This day will u...

Read and leave comments (9)

How strangely comforting

to see you there

occupying space somewhere

breathing air, as I might

touching keys as I write

in flight from site to site

Letters on a screen

phantom of a long dead dream

orange face upturned in smile

available to all

but one

whilst I log on

grey this day

invisible to all.

Read and leave comments (10)

Apples, toffee, crab

Halloween bobbing

mouths all a- gobbing

Scrawny scouts and guides

bob a jobbing  or robbing?

Brown Owl hob-knobbing

Owl and pussycat

bobbing in a pea green boat

sticky five pound note

Bald heads in damp beds

bobbing, knobbing, throbbing, on the jobbing to the groove

mirrors on the move

Wet chests in whi...

Read and leave comments (7)

Some people have beautiful minds…

Insight to the full, fatal spectrum

of a person’s heart

the nuance to a gossamer thread

Ears with sense enough

to hear the tear that doesn’t drop

twisted in its own blood knot

Souls soft enough to sacrifice

All search for self

Yet find the answers to another’s quest

Tongues to find the word...

Read and leave comments (30)

Well - I asked for more filth and you let me have it….

Not sure if it was St Valentine, Cupid, or the sub zero temperatures – but something saw us all turning up the heat for February… Indeed, overtly sexual poetry rained down on us faster than the average storm cloud bursting over Manchester…

In Vanilla Sex, Cynthia Buell-Thomas avidly urged us to ‘come dine on her’.  A bold and ...

Read and leave comments (5)

Romeo  Romeo - where for art thou Romeo?

Speak that I should hear your voice, rejoice

that deafened ear should hear you call my name…

_____________

The quality of love is not defined,

yet trippeth from the tongue with gentle ease,

to each and every one of us a meaning

as fickle as the feather on a breeze

Speak not to me, I pray, of star crossed lovers...

Read and leave comments (19)

Hi folks – I am pleased to announce results for last month’s most popular blogged poem:-

In first place with 4 votes, Chris Co’s  ‘Millie’  http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=8451

Quote “for its beautifully written verse and its innate and touching honesty”

In second with 2 votes and plenty of mentions Deborah Jordan’s ‘Spinarette’.

ht...

Read and leave comments (8)

December was a great month for poetry on WOL ��" very many voters confirming my thoughts and finding it difficult to choose just one poem.  Nonetheless, one winner/ one poet did shine through ��" with two of her poems Rejection and Little Clock receiving 3 votes each.  That winner is Rachel McGladdery, a very welcome and talented new addition to the WOL ranks.   I was surprised that men didn’t als...

Read and leave comments (16)