thank you for the welcome and especially for the comment, Colin.
Comment is about Does the oak of autumn (blog)
Original item by Chesley
Eseosa and MC, thank you for your comments. The latest confirmed death toll from Sierra Leone is over 1000 and expected to rise. Keith
Comment is about Black Lives Matter? (blog)
Original item by keith jeffries
this is really deep and controversial. not a write up for the weak minded. Thanks for your encouraging comments keith.- Eseosa
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Comment is about Black Lives Matter? (blog)
Original item by keith jeffries
A delicacy of thought in a strong format makes this an easy and delightful poem to read and ponder and faces up to the age old question of adaptation and peace. Wonderful and fully deserving of the accolade. Examining it is like marvelling at the structure of a stately home.
Ray
Comment is about 'Cottage Garden' by Chris Armstrong is Write Out Loud Poem of the Week (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Eseosa,I love this poem as it shows an insight into another´s soul and their disguised vulnerability. Thank you. Keith
Comment is about Voices in my head(pt 1) (blog)
Original item by Eseosa
Lynn,
thank you for your kind comments. It's comforting to know that someone else can relate. I love the stories you tell within your work as well. ??
Comment is about lynn hahn (poet profile)
Original item by lynn hahn
HI David, thanks mate for taking the trouble. I think this little rant is a live poetry thing to go with a certain type of character - dead from the neck up. It all spilled out. Honestly I thought I wouldn't put much effort in this time, as I sometimes feel as though poetry writing is just squeezing on an empty toothpaste tube. (!)
Raymondo.
Comment is about NO FRILLS (blog)
Original item by ray pool
Hello, I have enjoyed the poem posted as a Sample. I look forward to reading more. Kind Regards. Keith
Comment is about Nourhanne Khairy (poet profile)
Original item by Nourhanne Khairy
Hello Adam, This poem probes the human psyche in terms of our place in the created order and challenges us to think more of our nature as participants in a great endeavour. Thank you again for this. Keith
Comment is about We Are Them (blog)
Original item by Adam Whitworth
Terry, thank you for this. You have a good point. Keith
Comment is about Not Included (blog)
Original item by keith jeffries
Love the sentiment Keith, it's very familiar ?
Comment is about Two in One (blog)
Original item by keith jeffries
Hi Ray, thanks for your feedback on On Leave, encouragement always appreciated. The first line, possibly the last line, belongs to Ernie Pyle, WWII correspondent who, as you may know, was very popular for his companionable, unhyped stories from the front, for the folks back home, who are involved too, of course.
Dom.
Comment is about ray pool (poet profile)
Original item by ray pool
I really like your work. So easy to digest but so full of flavor.
Comment is about Lyrical Lexa (poet profile)
Original item by Lyrical Lexa
OH I just love your poem. I am in the same place. We can't always be with the one we love. There are parts of them that are poison for us. But their sunshine can keep us warm in our thoughts and in our words. Leave the clouds behind.
Comment is about Privately Poetic (blog)
Original item by Lyrical Lexa
patricia Hughes
Tue 29th Aug 2017 22:29
This is so dark and beautiful,makes me think of the dreary town I live in.
Thank you,enjoyed this a lot.
Comment is about A Dormitory Town (blog)
Original item by keith jeffries
The Abbey was poorer without the silly old duffer.
Comment is about LUUK (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
Intriguing tumbling of thoughts like one of those turn the handle raffle barrels to see what destiny may be picked out! Who is turning the barrel - and whose turn is it in the barrel. I think this is just a playful but interesting whirling Cynthia. What I always believe on a more serious note is that we exist in a spiral universe which never repeats itself so every moment poses something new. So there!!
Ray
Comment is about Reflections on Humanity (and Other Things Too) (blog)
Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas
In fairness, I did see coverage of this disaster on late night
global news on a number of occasions. The scale of the
tragedy and the essential need for ongoing excavation to
recover bodies indicates a likely sequence of media
returns to that country for further reports with regard to
preventing the real possibility of disease/infection from
the putrefaction of undiscovered human and animal remains. Black lives - like any - matter, but so does black
responsibility for taking action and providing assistance on
that continent.
Comment is about Black Lives Matter? (blog)
Original item by keith jeffries
I probably need my head examined, as my Dad used to say, in despair. And I'm POSTING IT.
Comment is about Reflections on Humanity (and Other Things Too) (blog)
Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas
A charming "nod" - given very apt emphasis in the last line.
Comment is about LUUK (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
I enjoyed singing along with "da best respect" - great fun.
"But, sadly, amour is no longer erotic
When danced to the tune of some antibiotic!"
Comment is about Promiscuity (blog)
Original item by Harry O`N eill
I've always considered being not included as blessed exclusion
Comment is about Not Included (blog)
Original item by keith jeffries
<Deleted User> (13762)
Tue 29th Aug 2017 08:13
excellent Karen - subtle but oh what an impact as the message makes itself clear. I particularly like the way you have incorporated the bees and whales as potent images of our wanton disrespect for the ecosystem. Thanks for posting. Colin.
Comment is about Future Voice (blog)
Original item by Karen Ankers
<Deleted User> (13762)
Tue 29th Aug 2017 07:59
so did they come back or was it all a dream? I can't help but think all those sandwiches went to waste and if another final verse was added we would witness the narrator's descent into madness!
(as us Southerners would say Harry...it's grim up north! Touché?)
Comment is about A Northern Greeting (blog)
Original item by David Lindsay
Nice work, MC, and beautifully read.
Some pleasing imagery. I particularly like the balance of "ever wise" and "ever changing skies".
Comment is about ENGLISH HILLS - an audio version (blog)
Original item by M.C. Newberry
Top hole, Harry. This is what poetry is about - lifting the spirit.
A trip to the clinic your grin would erase
As off from your face it would wipe
When you saw that great needle filled with hot lead
About to go into your pipe.
Comment is about Promiscuity (blog)
Original item by Harry O`N eill
I think that the power of this lies in the poem being in the third person as if it is a case to be examined and yet to have so much impact. Clever use of tense Tom - you seem to maximise effect in all your poems and notch up the intensity without any effort, damn you! It's as if you are filming the event drawing us in through the lens.
I just have to mention Peeping Tom (the film) in this context. Worth watching for its impact.
Ray
Comment is about In Another Room (blog)
Original item by Tom Harding
Apocalyptic and prescient of a kind of gallows hope . Very effective Karen. What the Earth offers is hardly ever respected - just burnt plundered and skinned of its surface where we are supposed to be happy! Wars over oil etc.
Ray
Comment is about Future Voice (blog)
Original item by Karen Ankers
HI Harry, I hope that you are not ailing re the antibiotics my friend. This ditty/poem cheered me up - sexual matters should if possible never be delivered straight but with a mixer as in this case. A nice risqué offering and an obvious calypso feel. The expert on these was Lance Percival with his guitar - regular performer on TWTWThat Was. (1962/3). Clever idea with the rhyming and who better than a Liverpudlian to come up with it.
Felicitations !
Comment is about Promiscuity (blog)
Original item by Harry O`N eill
Your words speak from the Heart. I've been there, where you are now , waking up to reality. One poem that helped me was Invictus written by William Ernest Henley, although he passed on more then 100 years ago, He still speaks to us. Terry
Comment is about Everything self; Beneath the surface (blog)
Original item by Shaakiera Schroeder
MC. Thank you for your interesting respsonse to my poem. It is worthy of some considerable thought as much of what you say is true indeed. I was trying to draw comparisons between the publicity afforded to tragedies in the first world as opposed to the third world. 16 people are brutally murdered in a Ramabla in Barcelona juxtaposed to 1,600 Africans who have drowned this year in an attempt to cross the sea to reach Europe. There is a disparity in reporting placing undue importance on one than the other. Africa needs to address its own problems which, if achieved, it would reduce the need of people who want to emigrate. Yet we along with others in the 1st world send vast sums of money in overseas aid and development to African dictators who use it for themselves and not for the benefit of their people. We need to ensure that aid given is for the people not their leaders.In the 1950´s and 60´s African nations wanted independence. They need to show that they are capable of being truly independent. I just don´t like how the tragedy of Sierra Leone and those who are drowned are regarded as somehow being different in the way they are reported or regarded. It troubles me. Thank you again for your comment. Keith
Comment is about Black Lives Matter? (blog)
Original item by keith jeffries
ramy
Mon 28th Aug 2017 19:46
Paul Brenton
Mon 28th Aug 2017 18:44
Spoken poetry I do in rhyme
A God given gift when I have the time,
Now as the years fly by
I keep hoping to catch a certain eye,
My legs are weak but my heart is strong
The words I use are short or long,
So if you think that I have a chance to shine
Please act on these chosen words of mine.
PJB (c. 2017 )
Comment is about Spoken word poets Hollie McNish, Matt Abbott and Sugar J Poet film ads for Nationwide (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Don't forget Aberfan and the creeping death of that coal slurry tip. Some of these awful events can be the failure
of Man to foresee the potential results of actions taken.
Tree removal, building a settlement beneath a snow
laden peak etc. as well as the first-mentioned example.
This brings to mind words attributed to Stalin - to the
effect that "one death is a tragedy, a thousand is a statistic."
There is also something in our collective human psyche
that acknowledges things we feel able to deal with and
those we can't - and we mentally detach ourselves
accordingly. Maybe some mental device to ensure we
carry on successfully in nature's survival game.
As for Africa- a VAST continent which should be busy
helping itself more than seems apparent. A similar sort
of situation appears to exist in South America. Who can
explain the differences in attitude and accomplishments?
when uncompromising events occur among peoples that
have so much in common across a given continent?
Comment is about Black Lives Matter? (blog)
Original item by keith jeffries
Bodi Onafun
Mon 28th Aug 2017 12:35
August's FANTOMIC was perhaps our best yet. Thanks to everyone who attended and shared in what was a great night of poetry, and song, (Thank you Bravid). I love a sea shanty. Folk came from as far as Newcastle upon Lyme to amuse us. And the mountain of freshly baked cookies was pretty awesome too. Hope to see and hear much more from you all in September when FANTOMIC will be brought to you by the ghost of Jimi Hendrix.
Regards FANTOMIC.
Review is about Fantomic (the phantom mic) on 16 Aug 2017 (event)
David,
Hugely enjoyed!
(but why are you making friendly Northern sandwiches for them? ...re-direct them down south to London...Everyone looks as ugly as they do down there) ?
Comment is about A Northern Greeting (blog)
Original item by David Lindsay
Karen,
I like the `warning-ness`of this particularly that stanza two.
Comment is about Future Voice (blog)
Original item by Karen Ankers
Ian, thank you for such a fitting tribute. Keith
Comment is about The Royal Free (blog)
Original item by IanQ
Hello David, I really enjoyed this poem. Very funny and well composed. I had hitherto thought that UFOs and Aliens only put in appearances in the USA. Thanks again. Keith
Comment is about A Northern Greeting (blog)
Original item by David Lindsay
<Deleted User> (13762)
Mon 28th Aug 2017 07:54
knowing a little more of the back story makes this poem even more poignant - the mourning, funereal tone lightened by the love of the writer to those cherished memories held within the cottage garden.
I find the 'religious' imagery employed towards the end fascinating as there is no real acknowledgement throughout the poem of a god or a life thereafter. 'I could not make my soul adjust / But cached it safe within the plot / Beside her memory and her mortal dust.' Past, present, future - it's all being tended safely and diligently by the author.
a clever poem and highly worthy of the POTW accolade. Hopefully it will get front page billing soon. Colin.
Comment is about 'Cottage Garden' by Chris Armstrong is Write Out Loud Poem of the Week (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
The new improved version incorporates your advice Colin, thanks for your kind comments.
Comment is about Love's Creature (blog)
Original item by Adam Whitworth
Very very good. You paint a beautiful picture with this poem.
I particularly love the lines
Now, my heart is caught and held
By the peace of its earth and space
As Cynthia says beautifully rendered.
definitely a well deserved POTW.
Nice one
Comment is about 'Cottage Garden' by Chris Armstrong is Write Out Loud Poem of the Week (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Ah there's the rub Col. It is about isolation from good times! I didn't know you were a racing fan.... or is that in a parallel universe on a strange voltage? I wish we were closer - perhaps we could act out these fantasies you are kind enough to pick up on. (time for medication).
Cheers old chum.
Thanks so much for your interest David Kevin and Patricia.
Ray
Comment is about WORLDS ON WHEELS (blog)
Original item by ray pool
Sun 27th Aug 2017 19:58
Thank you Colin. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Comment is about Nightmare (blog)
Original item by DESMOND CHILDS
Keith - what fun though!!
Comment is about DON'T MENTION THE ENGLISH! (blog)
Original item by M.C. Newberry
MC., I thank you for this comment which caused me to pour a glass of red wine and sing both verses of Jerusalem. Bless and thank you . Keith
Comment is about The Nation State (blog)
Original item by keith jeffries
Dear MC., Thank you for your comment on my poem The Nation State. I believe that we are, more or less, of one mind. I shall try to desist from anymore comments as we could be responsible for serious civil unrest. You are spot on about London. Regards. Keith
Comment is about DON'T MENTION THE ENGLISH! (blog)
Original item by M.C. Newberry
Martin Elder
Wed 30th Aug 2017 20:03
Thanks Lyn
Glad you enjoyed it
Comment is about books (blog)
Original item by Martin Elder