love it - the picture is a take on the original I believe?

Comment is about The Poetic Death (blog)

Original item by Michaela Sheldon

Brilliant - made me think also of Wyndham's Day of the Triffids in which only a few survived the blindness. I could see Talf the Teeth playing the part of Arthur Wellesley the agoraphobic.

cheers, Col.

Comment is about TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED (blog)

Original item by ray pool

following Rachel and Ray - that innocence lost, your childhood has been served. If only we could all retain some semblance of wide-eyed wonder without getting caught up in the shitstorm of adulthood.

very much enjoyed this Martin.

Col.

Comment is about imagination (blog)

Original item by Martin Elder

I love you just the way you are xx

Comment is about letters III (07/19/2017) (blog)

Original item by Zach Dafoe

Aitchoo!! 'tis the season to be sneezin'.

Love that opening line Keith and the rest just follows on nice and gentle.

Thanks, Colin.

Comment is about Human Nature (blog)

Original item by keith jeffries

terrific - your writing
terrifying - the situation

curling up in a ball in a corner is one solution but perhaps not that socially acceptable unless one wishes to be locked up in the madhouse.

funny too - I can also see the title referring to an unmentioned TV set in the background playing 'the game' which mustn't be missed and only adds to the tension of noises.

Col.

Comment is about How's your game? (blog)

Original item by nunya

so easy to read - words like warm butter melting into a crumpet. Delicious and dreamy. Cheers for this Suki.

Comment is about The Undersea River (blog)

Original item by Suki Spangles

Hi Ray,

You might be more on the money than you think. If Planet X is real, and it might be, many people will not be looking up to the sky, but looking down into their mobiles. I'm guilty of this too.

Wait until Ocular tech comes out..

Suki

Comment is about TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Hi Rachel,

The pretence is mind-boggling. I can't do it, that's for sure. So true. You have described it perfectly. Fab poem, and funny too.

Suki

Comment is about How's your game? (blog)

Original item by nunya

I had just a bit to say, but, dammit, David summed it all up--and probably better. It's a fantastic idea, Ray, that makes me wish I had more time to devote more effort to realizing the answer to life...

Rachel

Comment is about TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Kinda' like Ray, this has me thinking of a prolonged adolescence. At what time does dinner come--that time when we realize that our dreams are done and our lives' have come full circle...maybe for the fortunate of us--never.

Rachel

Comment is about imagination (blog)

Original item by Martin Elder

Hello Mohammed, I am a poet who subscribes to Write out Loud in the UK. I believe poetry to be a vital form of protest as it comes from the heart and mind of an individual who represents many others who might not dare or feel insufficiently articulate to protest. The poet often has first hand experience of the dilema or predicament more than most other people. The poet can inject humour where journalists are not able to do so. The question immediately calls to mind a brief poem written during the First World War by Siegfried Sassoon entitled the The Menin Gate. It speaks volumes about that war and reality of suffering. The words have never left me. Best Wishes Keith Jeffries

Comment is about Mohamed El Deeb (Egypt), English PEN: Is poetry the strongest form of protest? (photo)

Thanks, Ray. I suspect it may be some while yet before I get my garden party invitation.

Comment is about LIPOSUCTION (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Hi Wendy.Like Rose I too am with you re the poem.On the news a day or so ago it was announced that some communities are asking their local authorities to close off certain streets for while in order that the kids from those streets can all play out together under the supervision of their parents.Brilliant idea! its a wonder nobody thought of it long before now.Thank you.Jemima.

Comment is about Another Child Abused (blog)

Original item by Wendy Higson

I like this Martin in its impossible scope it is the dream of the forming testosterone , or even before that I suppose.
It's like the spine of the Hollywood action. The last line kicks into touch any lingering idea of girls.

Nice one. Ray

Comment is about imagination (blog)

Original item by Martin Elder

I love the line' Snuggling her corpse like a grave' in particular. The whole piece definitely has a nineteenth or eighteenth century feel about it.
Nice one

Comment is about The Poetic Death (blog)

Original item by Michaela Sheldon

This piece has rather a touch of Orson wells about it when he read the war of the worlds on the radio in the thirties. Let's hope there won't be people fearing that this is real except perhaps for Simon.
Nice one Ray, like David I love the Arthur Wellesley scenario!
Fab

Comment is about TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED (blog)

Original item by ray pool

I can relate to this one only too well Keith. that feeling of being alone in a crowd.
Thanks Kevin

Comment is about Restless Inner Solitude (blog)

Original item by keith jeffries

Thanks David you have quite rightly pointed out the injustices that came out of this sexual preference; prejudice runs deep in the psyche. We do well to examine our own feminine and masculine balances rather than cast them out.

Glad you like this Hazel, thanks.

Thank you Mark. You always bring personal views from experience - certainly "widens" the issue somewhat.

I'm glad you have peeked into my shadowy rooms Stu, nice and much appreciated.

Touche Col. You are the guardian of the threshold.

Thanks for the like Michaela. All the best for your new venture!

Just to say I have had some experience of this world on leaving school working amongst gay men in a theatre box office - quite daunting but there were upsides as well as backsides (sorry, downsides). I assimilated their strange world at the time which of course was always under threat. I would say they were tolerated by the boss who was straight as a die. Variety is essential in this life.

Love to all . Ray

Comment is about AFTER WOLFENDEN (blog)

Original item by ray pool

How very evocative and atmospheric. I am there in the barn, an intruder, an interloper, almost unwanted, except I'm invited in by your wonderful poem.

Comment is about The Farmer's Wife (blog)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

If Buck Palace ever have poetry events this should be the first in the queue John. Outrageous would be an understatement in this supine offering. I could do the reading if you like with my Prince Charles accent.

Nasty but nice. Ray

Comment is about LIPOSUCTION (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

A great sense of innocence right through a life Mark - I almost see Betjeman at the sea with trousers rolled up . Nicely poignant and really simple to reason with.

Ray

Comment is about YESTERDAY ONCE MORE - a re-post for the summer hols! (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/arts-entertainment/everyone-on-poetry-circuit-a-disgruntled-secondary-school-teacher-2015021795449

Comment is about Michael Gove quotes Larkin's lament for England in speech on environment (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Thanks, MC. I try to address the big issues.

Comment is about LIPOSUCTION (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Thanks for the feedback Colin, glad you find my stuff 'fascinating'. That's not a word I've heard before, mostly 'strange' and 'needs the Turin Test'. I need to visit your work and have a read.

The poem in ?, and most of the others on my Blog, I grant you they're 'odd', maybe an ingredients list that needs cooking, but my attempts to lengthen sentences and boost narrative, fail. I know the story inside each one, and for me that's important, but some are better than others in reaching that conclusion. I've tried to get published this year, but so far all attempts have failed, maybe because, stylistically, they don't fit anything out there, or maybe they're just dross? Reading other poets work, particularly on WordPress, a few other places too, it often bores me, to be honest, lots of maudlin introspection, loneliness, more and more lost love, but occasionally I find something with an impact.

When it comes to the 'Beats', had always heard of them, but hadn’t read any works until a few years back, particularly after seeing a documentary on Herbert Hunke and another guy (name ?), and after seeing the movie 'Factotum' about Bukowksi.

I'm a History Grad & Post-Grad, until about five years ago, hadn’t read any more than a few poems, couldn’t even say I liked poetry, so you never know.

Comment is about Black Boy Jerome (blog)

Original item by Paul Welsh

Hi Keith - thanks for your appreciation on the post on 31 July which I've since replaced with this entry for August. I've acknowledged your message elsewhere.
MC

Comment is about YESTERDAY ONCE MORE - a re-post for the summer hols! (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

It must always be welcome when a government minister
feels able to relate to and recite poetry in the course of
popularising and explaining policy decisions...especially
when they affect our diminishing and irreplaceable
countryside and what that means to future generations.

Comment is about Michael Gove quotes Larkin's lament for England in speech on environment (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

I came to this after hearing that my sister has had to
face something similar with ongoing checks and treatment
to come. I'm grateful for the smile it provided via its
positive theme and would like to think she could say the
same.

Comment is about Cancer (blog)

Original item by Hazel ettridge

Wotcher Cock!
Another welcome piece of hilarity from a reliable source.

Comment is about LIPOSUCTION (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Thanks for the comment Ray. I'm feeling a bit stale at the moment but I find that writing keeps the whole snowstorm in motion - so just keeping on keeping on.

Comment is about Skin (blog)

Original item by Hazel ettridge

I got a picture of the Christmas snow shakers Hazel - where in fact some larger entity shakes us up for some greater cause of which we are largely unaware - but you have become aware - good stuff!

Ray

Comment is about Skin (blog)

Original item by Hazel ettridge

That's just helped me find another couple of events to drop in on while I'm up there. Thanks!
An addition to this list: A Car Load Of Poets from Hull are also in Edinburgh. On at the Black Market each afternoon at 2.40pm (or thereabouts).

Comment is about Spoken word at Edinburgh Fringe, from Attila the Stockbroker to Carol Ann Duffy (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Beautiful; I joined my flowers with theirs; twas a wonderful sad spiritual evoking peaceful silent memorable presence; You portrayed it so well in your poem

Comment is about This Flower (blog)

Original item by Ian Whiteley

I'm with you all the way on this subject Wendy and how right you are!


Rose ?

Comment is about Another Child Abused (blog)

Original item by Wendy Higson

Thanx Ian and well done you for all your work and accomplishments within
the poetry scene

Comment is about Ian Whiteley (poet profile)

Original item by Ian Whiteley

Hi Colin, I know. Same old skin. Yawn. Yawn.

Comment is about Skin (blog)

Original item by Hazel ettridge

ahh the sweet smell of success Cynthia.

my local Poems and Pints was cancelled last night so I spent the evening reading lots of excellent writing here on WoL -
such a high standard of quality and varied styles that we are fortunate to have for our reading enjoyment. I was planning on heading over to your farmyard when sleep got the better of me.

so it's good morning and congrats from me on POTW.

Colin.

Comment is about 'The Farmer's Wife' by Cynthia Buell Thomas is Poem of the Week (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Thanks all. Yeah Patricia I've been busy getting my heart broken so I can write more poems lol

Comment is about THE DANCE (blog)

Original item by lynn hahn

Life is hard Regan not knowing which way to turn it really does work putting it into words love Wendy x

Comment is about The Tug of Depression (blog)

Original item by Regan Roberts

Thank you so much, Colin! I have to say i have been really enjoying your poems as of late as well!

Comment is about I Love, I Am, I Feel (blog)

Original item by Michaela Sheldon

Hi Paul, just to say I have been reading your poems and find them fascinating. I've never quite 'got' beat poetry and admit I need to spend more time getting to know the genre better. My natural instinct is to remould this into a style which I find easier to read but I know that is not the point. So for me I cannot give an unconditional thumbs up but neither is my thumb pointing down. I very much look forward to reading some more from you in due course as there is definitely room for it here on WoL. Please take this as encouragement and offered with the utmost respect. You might like to check out the work of Suki Spangles by entering his name in the 'Profiles' search box. All the best, Colin.

Comment is about Black Boy Jerome (blog)

Original item by Paul Welsh

my turn to play cowardly custard Ray and read the previous comments which have shed light on this snippetty snip of a decent poem. ?

Comment is about AFTER WOLFENDEN (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Hi Hazel, this seems to be on a similar theme to one you posted a little while back if my memory serves me correctly. I very much like the idea behind this and the way you bring the reader to the concluding lines. Thanks for sharing with us. Col.

Comment is about Skin (blog)

Original item by Hazel ettridge

Love it. May I say you are developing a style of writing unique to yourself and that is a good place to head for in your lopsided boat. 'Speed-floating towards nothing near' is a line I'd like to pinch and keep for myself ? but I will resist as it so belongs here in this poem.

Col.

Comment is about I Love, I Am, I Feel (blog)

Original item by Michaela Sheldon

another terrific poem Lynn. With 'encumbers' and 'slumbers' I couldn't help but think there should be some 'cucumbers' thrown in for good measure. Maybe not ? Time for me to dance off into the night....

Comment is about THE DANCE (blog)

Original item by lynn hahn

this is very timely for me Keith as I turned anger into energy (to quote John Lydon) this morning by boxing up a load of books, games and dvd's and running them over to my local Oxfam store. And boy did it feel good. Here's to the next bout of life laundering and to more of the same quality from your good self. Cheers, Col.

Comment is about To Hoard (blog)

Original item by keith jeffries

a fine poem Keith with lots of interwoven imagery. Thanks for posting, Colin.

Comment is about Despondent (blog)

Original item by keith jeffries

thanks for this Ian. I was earlier reading up on Hedd Wyn the Welsh language poet who was killed on the first day of fighting on Pilckem Ridge. There are a couple of interesting links about him on the WoL Facebook page if you're interested. All the best, Colin

https://www.facebook.com/writeout.loud.1/

Comment is about Passchendaele (RE-POST) (blog)

Original item by Ian Whiteley

Hi LL. Just a quick note to say thanks for taking the time to comment on my story about the Floppit brothers.

Cheers Kevin

Comment is about Lyrical Lexa (poet profile)

Original item by Lyrical Lexa

very romantic and sad at the same time Lynn.Not seen you on here for ages!

Welcome back!

P&S xx

Comment is about THE DANCE (blog)

Original item by lynn hahn