Writing poetry about real people
...wonderful John Thanks
I am a hospice poet and have used all sorts of ‘voices’ on behalf of patients over 8 years now. It’s a privilege to reflect one work of art with another!
Comment is about Whose life is it, anyway? Writing poetry about real people (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Love your sample poem. So very, very true.?
Comment is about Cassandra Magan (poet profile)
Original item by Cassandra Magan
The answer to your last question is yes. Definitely yes. I can see someone developing a beautiful gift with words, amongst other things. And remember, no-one can sell your heart, it is yours to keep or give, and never be afraid to give, and believe me after 50 years on the planet I do know that as fact.
Comment is about Ameno (blog)
Original item by Cassandra Magan
Each little bean in the coffee pot,
Has it's own unique design,
But who cares as long as the coffee's hot,
'Cos each unique little bean's divine.
Loved your poem❤
Comment is about Surplus’s Fat (blog)
Original item by Wendy Higson
Heartbreak and hope is what I see in this uniquely written verse. ?
Comment is about Let's Pretend I'm Fine Like You Do (blog)
Original item by Mikey V Kinsey
Thanks for reading and your feedback Adam. I agree, sometimes simple and uncomplicated is better, but a poem reads different depending on the line breaks. I recorded both versions. I can easily waste hours on a word or line break! I wish it was an easier process for me and not overthink it, but it seems to come with the gift.
Comment is about Soul Mates & Muses (blog)
Original item by Vautaw
Indeed,MC. I recall the Vietnamese girl photo. I believe she was burned by napalm. An image which summarised the war and the era.
Comment is about ALAN ON THE MORROW (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
A pleasing addition to the poems about gardens in this country -
with a history going back centuries. Is there any land that has a love
of its gardens to equal our own - and I do not refer to those grand
showplaces that resemble theme parks!
Comment is about Nature's Bounty (blog)
Original item by Rich
Buying a place in heaven? I see our own church wearing costly
vestments and think of Christ in his homespun robe.
Comment is about Haiku (Thailand) (blog)
Original item by David Gabriel Caplan
Tragedy unfolds around us every day in this life. In conflict, the
single image can be so powerful in representing the greater horror.
Remember the photograph of that naked burnt little Vietnamese
child on the path somewhere in her war-ravaged country? It came
to represent the reality of what such horrors meant and went
around the world. The grainy photographs of uncomprehending
children being led towards the Nazi gas chambers still linger in my
mind. Someone's children are always the pitiful victims of conflict
and nothing seems to stop that generational tragedy occurring
anywhere in the world.
Comment is about ALAN ON THE MORROW (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
These lines thinking had me got...
About how best to go to pot! ?
Comment is about The Bessecarr Teabag Famine (blog)
Original item by kJ Walker
Looking back, I see how little I asked or even thought of asking about
things that affected my parents and older relations. It was - and is-
one of the downsides of the young, obsessed with their own lives
and futures, that they ignore the fact that those ahead of them in
life's marathon have endured and survived whatever life threw at
them without the constant care and attention lavished on those following on, blithely unmindful and unaware of what that meant in human terms. "Taken for granted" is entirely appropriate.
Comment is about We Never Asked (blog)
Original item by d.knape
I have never read anything like this. Wow. It's the best compliment one can give: "Your writing doesn't remind me of anyone's".Excellent.
Thank you for it?
Mae
Comment is about This Corpse Eats The Stars With Bloody Feet (blog)
Original item by Kealan Coady
Incredible. A punch in the gut, indeed, Vautaw. I think even the few lucky ones that have the least regrets in their lives, are tortured by immense guilt when it comes to their elderly kin and loved ones. The people we love is our worst weakness and biggest strength. It's our, as the say, "poison"! Even if you see them and talk to them every day no amount of time is enough... You always want more. In fact you want forever. Or maybe that's just how I feel. And this is what truly sucks about death.
Incredible piece.
Thank you for it?
Mae
Comment is about We Never Asked (blog)
Original item by d.knape
I fall into this trap all the time and it feels like a repeated punch in the gut when tomorrow does't come for a loved one. Thanks for the reminder. Today, I'm going to call my mom! ?
Comment is about We Never Asked (blog)
Original item by d.knape
Such visceral imagery.
So arresting and imposing.
Comment is about This Corpse Eats The Stars With Bloody Feet (blog)
Original item by Kealan Coady
A Masterpiece.
Keith
Comment is about This Corpse Eats The Stars With Bloody Feet (blog)
Original item by Kealan Coady
Thank you all for your kind and constructive comments.
Po, your words illuminate problems which are easily overlooked and few are truly aware of. The very thought of marine life being so adversely affected by submarines is so dispiriting. We are called to be the custodians of the natural world but seem to be hell bent on its destruction.
Thank you all again.
Keith
Comment is about Aerials (blog)
Original item by keith jeffries
This excellent poem will resonate with many folk with those famous words too late. Many regret not spending time with the older generation as they can be a source of wisdom and illuminate all our pasts. Listening to our elders is time well spent and often very enlightening. Thank you for this. Keith
Comment is about We Never Asked (blog)
Original item by d.knape
Thanks, Kev. Yes, I don’t like to get too type-cast, although I am aware which I am better at! Hope to be there Thurs and might do this as a bit of a surprise. It’s a bugger to play though for someone of my limited ability.
Comment is about ALAN ON THE MORROW (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
Hi John
This is so different from your usual cheeky stuff, I had to double check that it was you who posted it. Of course I know that you can do serious stuff as I have read your book (everyone should buy a copy.. get a plug in here).
Have you considered writing under two different names, so that the reader knows what to expect?
See you soon all being well. (Are you doing requests on Thursday)
Cheers mate
Comment is about ALAN ON THE MORROW (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
Droll, David. If only Mary Whitehouse was on WOL, even from the other side. Bang to rights, and all that. As my birthday got in the way, I had to get my priorities right - saving or condemning souls was not on the agenda.
Apt you mention D & C. I recall one pissed sketch, where Peter Cook asked Dudley : " Does Valerie have a beard? Actually yes, she does... Perhaps Valerie is Jesus then? I think you're right."
Apart from you, I don't seem to have many followers with this specimen. Must try harder.
Thanks mate, always a pleasure.
Ray
Comment is about PEAKS AND TROUGHS (blog)
Original item by ray pool
Many thanks again, David. Did you check out the Tom Paxton song on YouTube? It really is extremely powerful.
Comment is about ALAN ON THE MORROW (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
Just wanted to say thanks for a cracking game yesterday and unfortunately I'm tied up today, so no time at the nets for me.
Also I can't tell you how much it made me laugh that during the verbal interplay we managed to invent a completely new word to add to the lexicon.?
I bow to your skill and consider myself thoroughly, "Spankquished!"
???
Comment is about Ms.Donohoe Poetry Tennis Champion. (blog)
Original item by Jason Bayliss
Hi folks. Thanks for your congrats. It's a long hard climb, believe me, but now on the peaks I've got time to put thoughts down.
Thanks Vautaw, there you go!
Good to here from you Tim. You made my day!
Hi Brian. Guilty as charged. !!
Thanks Po. I can handle the candles, but can the planet? More concerned with the breath to blow them out to be honest. I had small my mantelpiece full of cards....
Appreciate that Kevin thanks.
Splendid greetings Anya - I've given it away now havn't I !
Moving on into the stratosphere now.....
Ray
Comment is about 75th BIRTHDAY (blog)
Original item by ray pool
Hi Des, Anya, Po, Lisa and thanks for reading and liking.
Ray
Comment is about PEAKS AND TROUGHS (blog)
Original item by ray pool
"The Young Ones" I laughed at that David. I was a bit of a loose canon back then. Maybe we all were as you say. They were good times though.
Comment is about 68 Grafton St 1977 (blog)
Original item by mentalelf. Philk.
Sun 10th Feb 2019 11:11
thank you for your comments on my poem Jason.
wish i could have done better.
Comment is about Jason Bayliss (poet profile)
Original item by Jason Bayliss
I like this.
I wonder if there's a problem with writing it in longer (dare I say more 'natural') lines, something like this:
You found your soul mate?
I’m genuinely happy for you!
Mermaids and unicorns
are more common than soulmates.
Please do the lost and lonely among us
a favor of great significance,
Make her your muse so we can feel love too.
Comment is about Soul Mates & Muses (blog)
Original item by Vautaw
Thanks too to Desmond and Lisa for the”likes”.
Comment is about ALAN ON THE MORROW (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
Thanks Tim and David. I always try to start with the premise that the problem is Me. Rather than the others.
And I confess the poem owes hugely (the tune is virtually a copy) to Tom Paxton’s far superior “On the Road from Srebenica”.
Comment is about ALAN ON THE MORROW (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
Frances Macaulay Forde
Sun 10th Feb 2019 09:55
Hear, hear, Lisa. Couldn't have made a better comment.
(That's why he's on my favourites list, too, Lisa.)
Well done, again, Jason.
Comment is about Yesterdays Kiss (blog)
Original item by Jason Bayliss
Frances Macaulay Forde
Sun 10th Feb 2019 09:53
Very well written... love the lesson here, Jason.
Comment is about Trust Me (blog)
Original item by Jason Bayliss
Thanks Brian, Keith and Jason.
I half wrote this (in my head) one morning last week. Before I actually put pen to paper we were given a nice cuppa at each of our next jobs in Bessecarr. That should have cancelled out the mornings tea-drought, but as the idea was already formulated I went ahead with it anyway.
Cheers Kevin
Comment is about The Bessecarr Teabag Famine (blog)
Original item by kJ Walker
Hugely sad and poignant, John. We who were born in the UK all forget how privileged we are.
Comment is about ALAN ON THE MORROW (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
Thanks Po. I agree on both counts, faith and self-love are so important to weather the inevitable storms of life. ??
Comment is about Oasis (blog)
Original item by Vautaw
"Tongue like a yak dealers thong!" ??
Comment is about The Bessecarr Teabag Famine (blog)
Original item by kJ Walker
Great times though Ray. Thank you for seeing the story for the irrelevance it was. We all have stories to tell and maybe we should tell them. I'd love to hear some of your stories too.
Comment is about 68 Grafton St 1977 (blog)
Original item by mentalelf. Philk.
Kevin,
Another gem for the repertoire. I use tea bags for a quick cuppa but nothing can surpass getting out the tea pot, a touch of hot wáter to give some warmth before adding a few spoonfuls of loose tea. Perfect for dunking.I am a Little concerned about Clarabelle. Deprive her of biscuuits. That might make her sit up.
Great as ever.
Thank you
Keith
Comment is about The Bessecarr Teabag Famine (blog)
Original item by kJ Walker
<Deleted User> (18980)
Sat 9th Feb 2019 22:41
It's the satellite dishes I can't stand. I've never had one. Good poem Keith.
Po you've got me really worried now but I trust you implicitly to come up with the solution.
Comment is about Aerials (blog)
Original item by keith jeffries
<Deleted User> (18980)
Sat 9th Feb 2019 22:33
That's retirement for you Ray...I expect you had enough practise to embrace it by now.
Comment is about WAITING (blog)
Original item by ray pool
<Deleted User> (18980)
Sat 9th Feb 2019 22:30
That Clarabelle...she's a selfish cow and that's a fact!
Comment is about The Bessecarr Teabag Famine (blog)
Original item by kJ Walker
Ray,
An Ode to Inertia. I often find myself in such moments of suspensión. You are not alone..
I enjoyed this. Thank you
Keith
Comment is about WAITING (blog)
Original item by ray pool
I'm afraid my comment is a little stunted next to Po's, and while that is a serious assessment, I just wanted to say it was an enjoyable poem, and reminded me that I had to have a new aerial pointing away from Crystal Palace and down to Midhurst, whereby I have lost London news on BBC and have to put up with what happens in the southern towns Just as depressing I have to say .
All the best to you. Ray
Comment is about Aerials (blog)
Original item by keith jeffries
You rogue Phil. Another fine mess you got yourself in. I do like this kind of romp from the 70s , and you tell it with finesse. My 77 experiences were well salted and preposterous , but not so out there. I was a muso then actively, and I drove to Scarborough to be with a dancer aged 19 in a show with Bert Weedon and Frank Ifield. Busted flush though.
Ray
Comment is about 68 Grafton St 1977 (blog)
Original item by mentalelf. Philk.
Awhhh shucks!!!
Thank you very much, what a well played game it was..
So much fun, you had me blind sided numerous time's, it took time to think quick. Well played my friend x
Comment is about Ms.Donohoe Poetry Tennis Champion. (blog)
Original item by Jason Bayliss
Jason Bayliss
Sun 10th Feb 2019 21:26
Sorry Wendy, I wrote that as a comment on your poem because I found it very moving, but I also decided to put it up as a blog entry afterwards. I hope that's ok?
Comment is about Surplus’s Fat (blog)
Original item by Wendy Higson