In your place, I think I'd be singing...
"I'm abstaining...I'm abstaining..."!!
Can funds be sent via Paypal? (should that be Praypal??) If so, provide the relevant payee address please.

Comment is about I'M ABSEILING (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Joe - personally I like no.3 for its observational humour, but all are worthy.
Rob

Comment is about Four Limericks (blog)

Original item by Joe Williams

Thanks guys. I think 4 is my favourite too.

Comment is about Four Limericks (blog)

Original item by Joe Williams

I might try another of these Robert, but another line would need 55 syllables - a daunting task!

Comment is about Me (blog)

Original item by Trevor Alexander

Stu - died and taken to heaven. As if viewing the art somehow absorbed you into the picture and transported you to a better place. Love it mate.
Rob

Comment is about gallery (blog)

Original item by Stuart Buck

Stu - love the concept of a breeze 'pouring'. Nice one.
Rob

Comment is about summer haiku (blog)

Original item by Stuart Buck

Thanks for comment, Rob.

I don't think you are overly cynical at all, or if you are, I must be too! I certainly agree about the media, which I find incredibly biased.

Perhaps I should be getting worried as once again I woke up with words in my head, which went something like:

They want to collectively blame all
for what one person
or one party is responsible for;
worse than this
they want to skew it
so that the innocent or least involved
gets all the spotlight
of blame.

Ah well, back to the drawing board...

Comment is about Questions of verity (blog)

Original item by Lynn Dye

Trevor - I like the idea of this one, but feel it reaches its conclusion too soon. More of a build up please.
Rob

Comment is about Me (blog)

Original item by Trevor Alexander

Thank you very much, Rose and Rob. Have to see what I can do!! x

Comment is about haiku: raindrop blooms (blog)

Original item by Lynn Dye

Lynn - I don't know if I'm overly cynical, but why does it feel like media, politicians, bankers, and 'spokesmen' are all trying to 'SELL' us a version of what they claim is a truth. Sometimes it just gets surreal and I have to take a step back and remember whose version I am listening to.
Nicely considered piece of work.
Rob

Comment is about Questions of verity (blog)

Original item by Lynn Dye

Lynn - I share Rose's admiration of this one and would also repeat the sentiment of 'more please'.
Rob

Comment is about haiku: raindrop blooms (blog)

Original item by Lynn Dye

Whisper to yourself
each meaningful thought
write down carefully
fold paper neatly
making sure that
the next person
can not see
then listen intently
to final reading.

Comment is about May 2016 Collage Poem (blog)

Original item by Stockport WoL

Any money I collect, Graham, I'm keeping till I've done it. I might need it for my flowers.

Comment is about I'M ABSEILING (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

last two lines have embedded themselves in my memory bank,forever.Great poem.Thank you Emma.Jemima.

Comment is about On the suicide of Sally Brampton (blog)

Original item by Emma-Jane Stradling

Thanks Jemima. Yes, we shouldn't take ourselves too seriously in my view, although the purists will disagree (and there are some great verses on this site, just none of them are mine). I mainly write for fun or catharsis, so it will be silly or maudlin. Not much of a middle ground I'm afraid. Depends on my mood.

Cheers for bothering with the feedback, nice to know some even reads it...

A

Comment is about More silly stuff.... (blog)

Original item by Andy Smyth

I like this, Helen. It reminds me of long departed youth in Belfast: slightly different accent, but similar scenario. :-)

Comment is about A Glesga Kiss (blog)

Original item by Helen

They used to speak like that in Corby too. Half the time I didn't know whether the locals were drunk or sober! It took me two years to understand a message was an errand!

Comment is about A Glesga Kiss (blog)

Original item by Helen

Hi

Just read through your work and enjoyed very much. Then I read your sample which.... well!

Hope your words enjoy their new home.

Lynn x

Comment is about jsburckhard (poet profile)

Original item by jsburckhard

Hi Phil

You use your words much better than I. Thanks

Lynn x

Comment is about Only Words. (blog)

Original item by mentalelf. Philk.

Hi Helen

Enjoyed! You've given me inspiration to write about the Salford Kiss.

Lynn x

Comment is about A Glesga Kiss (blog)

Original item by Helen

I read this yesterday and it made me cry. I love the simplicity, the dotted rhymes but mostly the amount of feeling in the piece. This really resonates.

Comment is about TO A FRIEND (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Awwr Ray...christ, I know that feeling. I often think of my two dear friends, now long gone, and it aches inside so much. I grieve for them in a way I never did with my mother.

Love the brevity and simplicity of this, with the emotional punch to the guts that it provokes, as it raises the individual memories of the reader.

Comment is about TO A FRIEND (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Perfect. I hope there's a red cross bloke standing by at the bottom to extract your wedgie!

Comment is about I'M ABSEILING (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Indeed, I thought so too. A fine tribute. I love these lines:

to put an end to this senseless insoluble trial
that floats like black holes in the brain. And keep on
collapsing, not with the promise of new life

and 'enraged breasts' - amazing way to articulate it.

Thank you for your courage in writing and posting this beautiful piece, and for carrying on. I hope to see much more of your work.

Comment is about On the suicide of Sally Brampton (blog)

Original item by Emma-Jane Stradling

Morning Phil

Yep, just read the addition to Granddad - spot on, well worth revisiting it for the edit. So poignantly observed. My nan stopped with my grandad, though he was a total bastard to her. That's what women did back then, eh?

Oh and hey - nice to meet a fellow Thatcher hater haha :D Tis a shame you're in Hull otherwise I'd have said come to the book launch.

God, the gig was amazing, I'm glad I've managed to do justice to it with my review :) No, he didn't do that one - but I will look for your poem.

The trick with performing is to practice til you're sick of it, til your mouth knows it. Take your paper up with you so you can read from it if you need to. And always take a nice deep breath before starting. Remember that no one wants you to fuck up, they only want to support you. Open mics are wonderfully supportive places cos everyone knows how terrifying it is. It gets easier the more times you do it, honestly. I spent the first two years of performing wanting to evacuate from every orifice all day beforehand :D It's a massive buzz though. And that's why we keep doing it to ourselves!

Comment is about mentalelf. Philk. (poet profile)

Original item by mentalelf. Philk.

The last part you've added seriously ups the game of this poem Phil, glad you made the effort. Absolutely spot on.

Comment is about My Granddad. (blog)

Original item by mentalelf. Philk.

Cor blimey Chris, you're going back some there aren't you, with Cadence?! Haha! That must have been 2012! I seem to remember at the time I was suffering from a terrible chest infection, and there was a real danger of accidentally gobbing on the front row haha :D

Have a look at Jeff's new WOL venue - Bolton Socialist Club. It's a cracking little club, with some most excellent Fentiman's ginger beer :)

Anyway, no worries, beautiful poem and thoroughly deserving!

Comment is about chris stevenson (poet profile)

Original item by chris stevenson

Superb, Emma.

Comment is about On the suicide of Sally Brampton (blog)

Original item by Emma-Jane Stradling

Hi Laura .. thank you for your encouraging comment on 'Tourdion' .. last time I heard you was at the 'Cadence Cafe' which now seems to have disappeared .. have to save these open mics ! .... chris.

Comment is about Laura Taylor (poet profile)

Original item by Laura Taylor

Laura..
I rather like that idea. I mean, like wiring up a series of logic bombs. That could be a very effective (maybe completely ineffective, depending on the reader) device.

David..
I had to laugh as I pictured the words disappearing..I suppose it is a sort of paradox or a logic that loops back in upon itself.

I am grateful to the both of you for reading and commenting. Thanks again,

elP

Comment is about wrinkled notes (blog)

Original item by nunya

Harry, I'm tending to favour the mink over the bloody chickens. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend", as they say.

Comment is about LES'S MINK (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

So National Limerick Day is today
No one let on down this way
Did they decide to keep quiet
Fearing a riot
By poetical nuts in May?

As for your excellent contributions, put me down for Number 2 as my own favourite of the four. I relish its
bite being worse than its barK!

Comment is about Four Limericks (blog)

Original item by Joe Williams

...
.. but you have the most important job of all ..
.. he may sit opposite you in a café, go
home and write ten poems, but you will
never know, he’ll never see you again ..
or on train in Paris he’ll catch a glimpse
of your eyes, return to his small appartement
on Le rue Payenne … find a canvas and paint
a masterpiece for you, but you’ll never know.
.. or that musician playing guitar outside
le theatre will watch you stroll by, he’ll
compose the most beautiful song for you
.. but you will never hear it .. you were born
to this .. without you .. the muse .. there
can never be any poetry …


......

Comment is about Valérie Trottier (poet profile)

Original item by Valérie Trottier

It's one of the blessings of music that its songs can provide a link between how we feel and what we think
we should have said before it was too late. Maybe
"Bridge Over Troubled Water" comes into the equation in
this context when thinking on deeds not done and words
left unsaid as a reminder that an outstretched hand
can help another keep in touch with life. I like the nod towards Robert Frost in the opening line. It sets the mood for what follows.

Comment is about My Neighbor Across the Road (blog)

Original item by J. Otis Powell‽ (with interrobang)

Thank you Precious.

Comment is about Only Words. (blog)

Original item by mentalelf. Philk.

awesome!

Comment is about Only Words. (blog)

Original item by mentalelf. Philk.

I love this!

Comment is about TO A FRIEND (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Helen,
Now you`ve made me try to figure out to myself what I was wafflin` on about! :)

I think what I was feeling was that -whatever the `dreams and expectations`, and whoever the `you` that `one last time`wrapped it up a bit too abruptly (Like you wanted the wishing to end)

Maybe I`m reading too much seriousness into it.

Pay me no notice. :)

Comment is about I Bow To The Moon (blog)

Original item by Helen

I loved your write up of Linton. I wish I could have been there. I was at Southall fighting with fascists when Blair Peach was murdered. And I have always loved Reggea Fi Peach. I have a poem on here I posted on the Anniversary. sadly not many remember now. Did LKJ do Fi Peach?

Comment is about Laura Taylor (poet profile)

Original item by Laura Taylor

John,
It is now your bounden duty to get that bloody mink.

(I mean, not only the hen, but those carp!)

Hide behind the red wheelbarrow with an air gun.

Comment is about LES'S MINK (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Thank you Emily - it is nice to get a retrospective comment before a poem sinks out of sight! This is only an ironic view of mine, and not meant to replace any genuine distress it may cause. I was playing with the idea, and I'm pleased that it fits you ; I hope it will be well received by your mother. Keep up the great poems by the way.

Ray

Comment is about O C D (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Joe,
I love limericks, they are so thematically economical

I particularly like number four.

Comment is about Four Limericks (blog)

Original item by Joe Williams

Excellent juxtaposing of the physical and the literary, MC, and all within the whole.

Comment is about ASSUMING THE POSITION (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

Thank you for reading "my Granddad". I've added a verse that rounds it off. As for performing... I try but sadly my knees knock so hard the words vibrate.

I'm glad you commented because I've discovered your collection. I'm an old punk and Thatcher hater unrepentant. Also with a love for Linton kwezi.

Comment is about Laura Taylor (poet profile)

Original item by Laura Taylor

Thanks, MC. I don't think Les knows about my involvement in his hen's disappearance.
Graham - I know the theory but I suspect The Arse will pip us.

Comment is about LES'S MINK (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

For my money, if anyone new to WOL is wondering what makes a quality poem, then read this!

There is hardly a word wasted (just as it should be) and enough wonder and intrigue within it that one wants to read it over again.

Very good work!

Comment is about 'Tourdion' by Chris Stevenson is Write Out Loud's Poem of the Week (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Worth it for this line alone.......

"I made out the white of the chicken and the black of the mink tumbling down the riverbank together like a Newcastle United shirt in the wash".

(by the way we might be in with a chance of second spot now they've already been relegated JC)

So much depends on the red wheelbarrow! Cmon!!

Comment is about LES'S MINK (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Shades of "Alistair Cooke's "A Letter From America"! A
delightful depiction of life a bit further north - "A Letter
From Aire" perhaps.

Comment is about LES'S MINK (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

cheers david and graham, i hadnt spotted that!

i saw this painting on monday at the tate in liverpool. the galleries are set out in 'constellations' that chart how a single piece has influenced other artists. very interesting.

Comment is about gallery (blog)

Original item by Stuart Buck

no surprise there then M.C.


Rose

Comment is about ASSUMING THE POSITION (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry