Very eloquent and the poem reaches the parts that we all feel at some stages. We need to feel connected to a greater whole. I can't subscribe to the "we'll never be good enough mantra and that we can be saved from that." We are all though addicted to life and its needs and temptations and why should the devil have all the fun.

I certainly believe we can will things to happen - another story. That must surely make us stronger and not such a burden on religion, which has enough problems of its own.

A great poem Laura.

Ray

Comment is about Congregation (blog)

Original item by Laura Taylor

That was an awesome turn of events!

Comment is about The 2nd Parakeet (blog)

Original item by gavin turner

Thanks Steve, glad you liked it!

Comment is about The Prettiest Girl in the Co-op (blog)

Original item by Joe Williams

Thanks Steve, glad you liked the poem. Perhaps I'll run into you at some point when I'm doing all these book gigs!

Comment is about steve pottinger (poet profile)

Original item by steve pottinger

Hello Cynthia
I’m grateful for your comment on my Profile page and appreciate the time and effort you spent in contacting me.
I have a sneaky feeling that I am having my wrist most deliciously slapped – although for the life of me I am unable to work out why!
A pleasurable experience all the same! Thankyou.

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

There was always the danger of going to fast on a bend and spectacularly ending up upside down or your car not wanting to go.
Happy times.

Comment is about WORLDS ON WHEELS (blog)

Original item by ray pool

It is strange or perhaps not so strange how we become so attached to certain items , particularly clothes. Such wonderful memories you evoke here Ray with a lovely description.
Nice one

Comment is about SHE LOVED THAT CARDIGAN (blog)

Original item by ray pool

That's a great poem, Joe. All the best with the pamphlet!

Comment is about The Prettiest Girl in the Co-op (blog)

Original item by Joe Williams

An image painted so clearly, with so few words....

Comment is about The Whale (blog)

Original item by terry l shuff

I like the way this poem is presented - the inhale / exhale and time start / stopping / pausing / resuming structure accompanied by the distant sound of the train. 'My heart drops lower than my self esteem' is also a great line, the last verse a killer. Thanks for posting. Colin.

Comment is about INHALE/EXHALE (blog)

Original item by invisible

This already has the feeling of an old classic. I could just imagine Vincent Price reading it out.

Kevin

Comment is about Boogeyman (blog)

Original item by DESMOND CHILDS

I like the way that you slipped in the line about the scientists, as if they were just going about their day like everyone else.
As with all your work, your own personality shines through in this, and it couldn't have been written by anyone else.

Kevin

Comment is about What we do... (blog)

Original item by keith jeffries

OK new fan here! Thanks for visiting my page so I could find you!

Comment is about these winter days (blog)

Original item by steve pottinger

Glad you liked it Steve. I don't know where I came up with it. My mind has it's own free will lol. Gonna go look at your work. Lynn

Comment is about GENDERS (blog)

Original item by lynn hahn

So glad you commented on "Artists" I got to meet another artist! You took me on a fun journey! Lynn

Comment is about Daydreams and nows (blog)

Original item by David T Jones

Hi AMC! Were you away for a bit? I was but hope to be better about getting poems on here. Good to hear from you. Lynn

Comment is about DON'T QUIT (blog)

Original item by lynn hahn

Thank you Cynthia , much appreciated. I wasn't sure the personalisation of wind would work, but I thought of the naughty child idea and glad it did the trick!

Cheers David. Glad it worked for you!

Thanks Col. I respect your idea and take your point - maybe Johnny Fartpants was around. Frankly my mackerel line was supposed to evoke the sort of helicopter blade fanning on water - it did feel a bit complex, but I like to take a chance!

Greatly appreciated comment Laura. I respect your opinions as you know so this is nice for me !

Thank you for the likes Steve and David.

Ray

Comment is about LATE SUMMER WIND (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Cynthia, I am most grateful for you kind comment. Keith

Comment is about What we do... (blog)

Original item by keith jeffries

Hi Frances, thanks for your comment. I love it when you use the word clever, it makes me happy. As for the fear, just keep away from John Travolta. (the boogeyman)

Thanks again for your comments.

Comment is about Boogeyman (blog)

Original item by DESMOND CHILDS

Hi Collin, thanks for you humorous comment. Have been laughing on and off all day. I too now have that vision of John Travolta dancing down alleyways pricking people with a bony finger,very funny. I did think of changing boogeyman to bogeyman but decided to leave it as boogeyman in tribute to your comments and the great John Travolta. Thanks

Comment is about Boogeyman (blog)

Original item by DESMOND CHILDS

This poem reflects my life growing up obeying my parents, my teachers, my elders, and most importantly my God. It showed me there are many people who can control what happens in our lives but never completely control us unless it is God himself.

Comment is about The Controller of Life (blog)

Original item by Joseph Calderon

Thanks for your comments Cynthia, I'm glad you liked the poem and my biog. I think the word you're looking for to describe the profile pic might be "drunk" :D

It looks like you're a regular at WoL Sale, so I hope I'll see you there in November when I'm one of the guests.

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Much enjoyed, Tom. Your themes are so inclusive of everyone's similar experiences, and yet highlighted with such clarity, and sincerity, and imagination.

Two little things to spot check: perhaps 'leant' and 'its'. Probably typo's, but worth fixing; the work is so outstanding.

Comment is about In Another Room (blog)

Original item by Tom Harding

Thanks Cynthia!

Comment is about The Prettiest Girl in the Co-op (blog)

Original item by Joe Williams

Richard, do we have an 'orbit' here on WOL. Maybe we do - but it certainly isn't geographic, deliberately. For awhile it wasn't just the UK. Poets came from the US and Canada and Australia and India and Africa and Europe. And were well received too. Sometimes, English was their second/third/fourth language.

Then, again, maybe 'like' does take to 'like'. And the stalwarts are just that - stalwart. Responsive and regular in their written input, with both poetry and comments. Without a doubt, poetry 'friendships' have developed. And there seems to be an inexorable lean to the North of England writers, with their famous 'one foot in romance and the other in necessity' which pervades the whole society. I have come to greatly appreciate this duality - the essence of 'Northern-ness', a very sharing and brutally honest outlook on life.

Just a thought.

Comment is about Richard Hartley (poet profile)

Original item by Richard Hartley

Much enjoyed. Deep and challenging. The title is brilliant, in itself a superb metaphor.

Comment is about We Are Them (blog)

Original item by Adam Whitworth

Iesha, I'll try to catch up with more of your work.
I'm sorry a Welcome to WOL is so late. I'm pretty sure I've commented on some of your other poems, but maybe not.

I'm not on site daily. Sometimes only once a week. But I will make an effort.

'merely a moment' indeed. Excellent phrase.

Comment is about iesha washington (poet profile)

Original item by iesha washington

This is a wonderfully original concept, and moves forward with pace right to the succinct ending.

I think the lines could be shorter in some areas. IMO, never worry about the length of your work. If the poem is long, it's long; and readers will stay with you if you are writing well and interestingly. Which you are.

If you really don't want a long work, then hack half of it out. It takes real effort to reduce ideas, and guts to jettison them entirely. But we have to learn how to do it. All of us.

Or, just leave it long. Maybe next time it won't feel so awful, reducing a poem by one third to a half. Think strong, strong words to catch maximum intent in the fewest syllables. A thesaurus is a second brain; I kid you not.

Comment is about The New Boy (blog)

Original item by iesha washington

I don't know how I've missed you thus far. I'll really try to catch up. That's an impressive BIO.

Are you trying to look scary in the photo, or just sun-blinded? Or intense and intellectual? Or maybe deeply 'composing'? It's definitely a 'catchy' picture.

Comment is about Joe Williams (poet profile)

Original item by Joe Williams

Totally delightful in content and execution, with a free, easy style.

I might repost my Tesco one called'The Single Man'. It always raises a laugh whenever I read it in public.

Comment is about The Prettiest Girl in the Co-op (blog)

Original item by Joe Williams

List of poems

Sticking it Out

Sent the crowd into a dreamy haze of laughter

What a Sucker

They sensed the theme and shouted bring it on

Barefoot in the City

Shaking heads with slight tut tut tuts got them going more and more

Jumping Jack Flash

By this time a drunken crazy mob screamed at me - - - that was just my fellow poets!

Comment is about Oldknow Open Mic Event August 2017 (photo)

Original item by Stockport WoL

Thanks Rob, glad you liked it!

Comment is about The Prettiest Girl in the Co-op (blog)

Original item by Joe Williams

Great message and thank you for your kind comment on my recent poem. AMC

Comment is about DON'T QUIT (blog)

Original item by lynn hahn

Very interesting; I like 'awareness' and 'thoughtful'. The contrasts are strong, and the ending only too realistic.

Comment is about What we do... (blog)

Original item by keith jeffries

I also find this clever - and admit to some 'fear in my heart'...?

Comment is about Boogeyman (blog)

Original item by DESMOND CHILDS

I think that every time we write a poem, we are actually 'committing' a prayer to the page, the ether, another mind - just an effort of sincere communication from one human person to another. And usually without rancour, if you couldn't exactly call it LOVE.

I was very young when I realized that most people approach prayer as 'bargaining', 'trade-off'. And I thought, even then, how ridiculous such a notion was, robbing the whole concept of magnificence. And what is life without MAGNIFICENCE? So, I think you must pray a lot.

Comment is about Congregation (blog)

Original item by Laura Taylor

Joe - a brilliant 'what if' element to this piece. Missed opportunities or misread signals maybe. Love it.
Rob

Comment is about The Prettiest Girl in the Co-op (blog)

Original item by Joe Williams

Love it ?

Comment is about Thud (blog)

Original item by MyDystopiA

Oh this is wonderful Ray. Cynthia has it right - it sparkles. Love the idea and the execution.

Comment is about LATE SUMMER WIND (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Thank you Cynthia - great praise. Without saying too much, it most definitely involves love.

And thank you too David. Yes. I'm not an atheist, although I was raised as one, but I'm not religious in the 'this is what we do in church' kind of way either. I've only prayed once...

Comment is about Congregation (blog)

Original item by Laura Taylor

So I am one with both

solitude for my

creativity and the other

for my sanity.
?

Comment is about Two in One (blog)

Original item by keith jeffries

And thanks David too. Yes, I like a bit of refelctive nostalgia in poetry, and I find myself putting it into my own work quite a lot. Glad you liked it!

Comment is about The Prettiest Girl in the Co-op (blog)

Original item by Joe Williams

No I think that was Elvis McGonagall!

Thanks for the comments Colin, glad you liked it.

Comment is about The Prettiest Girl in the Co-op (blog)

Original item by Joe Williams

was that a bit of wind escaping at the end of the audio Ray? Own up, have you've been on the cabbage soup again? Assuming then that this poem is indeed about flatulence then the line 'puffing deckchairs inside out' is a gem. Not sure about the 'mackerel spindrift' though. Sounds messy.

I'm sorry, I'm in a silly mood this morning. The poem is lovely and though I joked, I did like the deckchair and spindrift lines the best. All the best, Col.

Comment is about LATE SUMMER WIND (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Boogeyman or Bogeyman? I had visions of a murderous John Travolta Saturday Night Fevering through the back alleys and dark places of your poem looking for disco dancing victims and meeting Michael Jackson screaming Thriller Thriller!! Maybe I'm thinking of Boogie Nights? God I miss disco.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob9sDpmRuqc

Seriously though, I do like your spooky poems Desmond. Halloween is not so far away - save the best till then.

Colin.

Comment is about Boogeyman (blog)

Original item by DESMOND CHILDS

simple and effective, I love the sausage scanning line and if there were girls like that at my local Co-Op I might be more tempted to shop there!

btw, you weren't the guy who worked down the chip shop who swore he was Elvis by any chance?

Comment is about The Prettiest Girl in the Co-op (blog)

Original item by Joe Williams

This poem is from my debut pamphlet, 'Killing the Piano', being published in September by Half Moon Books. You can get it from me at any of the gigs I've got coming up (see my profile for the list), or you'll soon be able to get it from my website www.joewilliams.co.uk.

Comment is about The Prettiest Girl in the Co-op (blog)

Original item by Joe Williams

The line about teaching a duck to do hopscotch made me laugh out loud, Lynn. Such a great image.

Comment is about GENDERS (blog)

Original item by lynn hahn

'Still as the night and deep as the sea' - a quote in English from a German poet whose name I forget. I sang this many times as an 'Art Song' during my vocal training so many years ago. This work evokes the same 'feeling' although it is not a 'love song'.

But, you know, maybe it is. 'Love' has many faces. I think this poem is magnificent. As, IMO, is your mind.

Comment is about Congregation (blog)

Original item by Laura Taylor

I enjoyed reading this so much. I found it moving and honest.

Comment is about The New Boy (blog)

Original item by iesha washington