Room for both Don..keep us laughing x..?
Comment is about What Do I Write to Increase Comment ? (blog)
Original item by Don Matthews
No comment, Don. ?
Comment is about What Do I Write to Increase Comment ? (blog)
Original item by Don Matthews
Thank you for the likes and comments everyone.
Brian, Don..it is about my visits from Ireland to UK to see my mum who was battling lung cancer from age 63..she was beautiful and strong she wanted to be in control until the end which meant she suffered more than she needed to. This is about those moments she could not hide..
I am always trying to immortalise my parents in my writing. I think we writers often do. ?
Comment is about Always Yesterday (blog)
Original item by Taylor Crowshaw
Like Brian I am also trying to fill in the blanks. A moving piece of writing Taylor ?
Comment is about Always Yesterday (blog)
Original item by Taylor Crowshaw
Sorry Becky. Couldn't resist to take your idea down another path ?
Urge is strong Monday
Throw money at pokies Tuesday
Sniff cocaine Wednesday
Hate myself Thursday
Justify on Friday
Weekend passes in a dream
Rinse and repeat
Comment is about Weekly routine (blog)
Original item by Becky Who
A mosey into domesticity that has a certain charm, even
without the 19th century disciplines that made older stuff
memorable (e.g. easily remembered).
Comment is about American Life in Poetry: The Appearance of Modernism (article)
Original item by Mike Took
Takes me back to Tin Pan Alley lyric writer Irving Caesar
("Swannee" etc.) who once accepted a commission to write
songs to educate kids in personal hygiene - and later
admitted it was one of his most rewarding assignments!
I'm sure that Hugh enjoyed his gripe -
Being the thoughtful but humorous type! ?
Comment is about Wipe out .Wet wipes an enormous cause of sewage blockage (blog)
Original item by hugh
My sister would agree but I take the view that...
A dog will stay at your grave when you're gone,
While a cat will quickly move house and move on.
Comment is about The adoration of cats (blog)
Original item by eve nortley
I went to Poets Out Loud in October at the Kirkgate as I was staying in Cumbria at the time. I enjoyed every minute of the evening it was friendly, easy going and a great venue.
I was staying near Maryport and it was very hard trying to find a poetry night near by.
Comment is about SPOTLIGHT: Poets Out Loud in Cockermouth (article)
Original item by Mike Took
(Written before the 4th like came in)
I hope you follow practice
Put 3P down the loo
Now come along and sing together
Paper, pee and poo
Paper pee and poo
Paper pee and poo
All these can go down loo loo
But not your wipe wipes too
(Ready for verse 2?)
It seems Hugh's cracked a '3-like' one
That's one like more than two
Now come along and sing together
Paper, pee and poo
Paper pee and poo
Paper pee and poo
All these can go down loo loo
But not your wipe wipes too
?
Comment is about Wipe out .Wet wipes an enormous cause of sewage blockage (blog)
Original item by hugh
<Deleted User> (19913)
Tue 13th Nov 2018 21:12
Hi DK, so sorry I didn't respond to your comments on my blog, I guess I'm not sophisticated enough to get your meaning. Still loving your poetry though. Cheers, Kate
Comment is about d.knape (poet profile)
Original item by d.knape
Big Sal
Tue 13th Nov 2018 21:11
Excellent rhythm to this piece. Nicely done!?
Comment is about The adoration of cats (blog)
Original item by eve nortley
Big Sal
Tue 13th Nov 2018 21:08
Big Sal
Tue 13th Nov 2018 21:07
<Deleted User> (18980)
Tue 13th Nov 2018 19:39
Intriguing, and I'm trying to fill in the blanks
Taylor.
Comment is about Always Yesterday (blog)
Original item by Taylor Crowshaw
<Deleted User> (18980)
Tue 13th Nov 2018 19:36
Interesting and accurate... Like it..?
Comment is about The adoration of cats (blog)
Original item by eve nortley
Tue 13th Nov 2018 17:42
Thank you Keith for the like, very much appreciated.
All the best des
Comment is about Consumed (blog)
Original item by DESMOND CHILDS
When I was growing up, I thought that elemenno p was a certain kind of letter, kind of like capital letters.
Were there other letters that were also elemennos? Was there a p that was not an elemenno?
I did, however, have the confident expectation that I would one day receive a concrete answer.
Much different today, when my questions are butterflies going from flower to flower.
?
Comment is about Ella Minnow Pea (blog)
Original item by d.knape
<Deleted User> (16099)
Tue 13th Nov 2018 17:04
absolutely one of my favorite writes.. beautiful....
Comment is about Til Morning Light (blog)
Original item by Chiari Warrior Soldier
I've given a link to this anthology before, but no harm in repeating it - Neil Astley's The Hundred Years' War https://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=43187. My review back in 2014 mentions a couple of first world war German poets, and I'm sure there are more in the anthology. Not saying that their names have resounded in the same way as those of Owen and Sassoon, but perhaps that's partly because the German attitude to its two twentieth century wars has always been different to ours.
Comment is about Wilfred Owen and the Poetry of Trauma (article)
Original item by Mike Took
Perhaps Brian should petition WOL for two categories of
"Poem of the Week".
Posh of the Week - for garrulous guff.
Tosh of the Week - for silly stuff.
:-)
Comment is about Teaching Brian Drivel (blog)
Original item by Don Matthews
This has developed into a useful and informative forum
JFK's point about the absence of WW2 poetry, compared
to the volume from WW1, is interesting. It is surely the
product of a more cynical change in human attitudes -
perhaps finding its origin in the shock and anger that
preceded it and less ready to respond for that reason.
A poet like John Pudney ("For Johnny" and "The Letter")
is the exception and even he kept his lines brief and to
the point in contrast to the verbosity found in much of the
stuff from WW1. The war-weariness and its acceptance is much more evident two decades on from "the war to end to end all wars".
As for the Germans - a Prussian view and acceptance of militarism, was their raison d'etre for marching across the borders of other lands and that quasi-religious belief had no
time for poetry - unless you include
those strangely attractive "strutting"
songs they used to sing and which
surely served the same purpose as the more wry and sardonic songs
sung by British WW1 troops.
Comment is about Wilfred Owen and the Poetry of Trauma (article)
Original item by Mike Took
Fantastic poem of the week Jon..well deserved. A huge congratulations..??
Comment is about Words (blog)
Original item by Jon Stainsby
Really well constructed poem. I enjoyed this poem..thank you..?
Comment is about The true image in mind (blog)
Original item by Hasmukh Mehta
Well crafted silliness..you are the master Don..?
Comment is about Teaching Brian Drivel (blog)
Original item by Don Matthews
Excellent...a serious subject very well versed..?
Comment is about Wipe out .Wet wipes an enormous cause of sewage blockage (blog)
Original item by hugh
What a lovely way to learn thanks D.K.?
Comment is about Ella Minnow Pea (blog)
Original item by d.knape
Tue 13th Nov 2018 14:55
Learning the ABC's
early on was a difficulty
but with the rhyme
I came to see
worlds of words
open up for me.
Comment is about Ella Minnow Pea (blog)
Original item by d.knape
Congratulations on your second POTW, and thank you for such a lovely and meaningful poem. xx
Comment is about The Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘Words’ by Jon Stainsby (article)
Original item by steve pottinger
This is so beautiful. An awe-inspiring poem.
Comment is about The Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘Words’ by Jon Stainsby (article)
Original item by steve pottinger
Words....it's what we are all made of!
Well done on joining the POTW double club Jon!
Comment is about The Write Out Loud Poem of the Week is ‘Words’ by Jon Stainsby (article)
Original item by steve pottinger
I would guess Isaac Rosenberg would fit the bill as a working class war poet, though I can't think of many others (and even he was a product of Jewish respect for education and attended a top art college). Niall Ferguson suggests that our image of war is distorted by over-emphasis on middle class reportage; many working class men actually enjoyed the excitement and comradeship of war. Remember that they had no romantic ideals or experiences to contrast the war experience with, unlike the upper middle class.
Something else that interests me is the exceptional English response to the war in terms of poetry. There are no German equivalents to Owen or Sassoon, for instance; yet Germany has a great literary heritage and its losses in the war were much heavier (2 million dead and many more wounded). Perhaps the German view of war as a pragmatic, professional activity explains the difference. Also, Germany already had a well-developed system of technical education which distanced many Germans from literary culture from a young age.
Comment is about Wilfred Owen and the Poetry of Trauma (article)
Original item by Mike Took
<Deleted User> (19913)
Tue 13th Nov 2018 11:19
<Deleted User> (19913)
Tue 13th Nov 2018 11:16
Silliness is so important. Thanks for the laugh.
Comment is about Teaching Brian Drivel (blog)
Original item by Don Matthews
<Deleted User> (18980)
Tue 13th Nov 2018 11:11
<Deleted User> (19913)
Tue 13th Nov 2018 10:48
Thanks for your comment on Lost Hope Hugh. It's based on real events... So, so sad.
Comment is about hugh (poet profile)
Original item by hugh
Thanks, Kev. Sorry I didn’t make Well Spoken last week.
Comment is about RUGBY FATBOYS BLUES 2 (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
JFK you make some very good points. However, much overlooked are the ordinary "letters home" from those in the trenches that are occasionally aired on the radio etc. I'm not aware of an anthology of such letters (there might be one or two) but there is a poetry in amongst them which is clearly unrecorded. Education (which most of the WW1 poets enjoyed) does shine out but it would be lovely to see more of the "ordinary man's work" brought to the fore.
Comment is about Wilfred Owen and the Poetry of Trauma (article)
Original item by Mike Took
I love the last few lines in particular Cynthia. The idea of some drunken bugs marching through a body is quite marvellous.
A fabulous poem
Comment is about Chemotherapy (blog)
Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas
I have been thinking about poetry and WWI and why the two are so intertwined in the UK. No other country or war produced such a rich poetic response and the WWI poets stand miles above all other war poets in stature and popular appeal.
Some reasons for this?
1. WWI occurred in a literary era prior to the rise of a modern mass media. People considered literature the default mode of self-expression.
2. WWI occurred when most educated people were still raised part of a canonical literary culture based on the Greek classics and the King James Bible. Hence poetic references to these things were widely appreciated.
3. At the time, translating Greek and Latin verse was a central feature of British middle class education. Consequently, the sheer quality of the poetry was very high. Subsquent generations did not have this default 'poetic' education.
4. Because of 3, WWI poetry was still defined by populist poetic devices such as rhyme, metre and alliteration. These are simply popular with laypeople, explaining the war poets' lasting populist appeal.
5. The War touched everyone as a kind of folk memory, which keeps the poetry alive. Remembrance Day always invokes the war poets and their works.
6. WWI was a seismic transitional event which ushered in the age of modernity and saw the decline of an older world based on mass religious belief and social conformity. The poetry captured this transition perfectly as idealism confronted the new industrial reality. WW2 lacked this quality utterly.
7. It is a bit controversial, but WWI was unusual in that it was the first war to be fought by all British social classes. Prior to it, the British military was staffed by a pragmatic officer class and underclass minions. Unsurprisingly, these people did not produce much in the way of war art, poetry or whatever: the military was just a career for them, not a diversion imbued with complex ideals. The same is true of the contemporary military, which has reverted to this professional elite/underclass model in the UK. WWI was unique in that the educated middle class fought in it - and that class are the typical creators of poetry, art, memoirs and so on. Most of the best war poets were intelligent public schoolboys who would have never have joined the army except for the war.
Comment is about Wilfred Owen and the Poetry of Trauma (article)
Original item by Mike Took
Ray, what you have described here are tribes. We are animals remember and as animals learned to band together for safety and to become a more potent hunting force.
Tribes then both fear and respect one another so eventually agree to help each other in times of threat from outside.
Wealth can then be accrued whether it be food or shiny things and is another sort of power to be protected and allied to.
The only thing that stops man from continually trying to defeat or dominate other tribes is the threat to their own existence, namely a deterrent.
Therefore tolerance is born! It is a very weak flame that must be nurtured.
Bloody good thought provoking stuff.
Comment is about THE ASSEMBLY OF MEN (blog)
Original item by ray pool
<Deleted User> (18474)
Tue 13th Nov 2018 08:14
Enjoyed this.
I see so many dysfunctional families in my day to day life, that I found this very warming.
Lucky parents indeed!
Thanks,
Beno
Comment is about Sisters (blog)
Original item by d.knape
<Deleted User> (18474)
Tue 13th Nov 2018 08:09
I agree with Taylor.
A lot left unsaid.
But it's best left there, as the poem works beautifully.
Thank.
Beno
Comment is about The Almost Child (blog)
Original item by Chris Armstrong
<Deleted User> (18474)
Tue 13th Nov 2018 08:05
This was a completely stunning read.
Thanks, Beno.
Comment is about Cutting The Line (blog)
Original item by kJ Walker
Taylor Crowshaw
Wed 14th Nov 2018 07:15
So many trapped I fear..good piece.❤
Comment is about I Am Not Free (blog)
Original item by Joanna Halliday