Very imaginative, edgy with insight. I really enjoyed all of the interpretations, I anticipated some 'sameness' with the 9 and 6, wondering where you might go with the inverse idea. Good flip. 'Sudoku' limits the numbers to 1 - 9, yes?

And the whole world spins about on the '0', or rolls around erratically. But that's not possible, is it? Zero/nought is probably the most important number of all.

'Numbers' are a never-ceasing source of creative thinking, in both concept and written structure, and have been since ancient times. It's easy to understand why the fascination never wanes for the intellectual and imaginative mind.

I admire your input in all areas so much. You inspire me. 'Season's Greetings.'

Comment is about Sudoku (blog)

Original item by Freda Davis

Tommy,

You are a man of many facets, sharply cut, like a fine diamond. Greetings of the Winter Solstice - the blessed promise of renewed warmth and light - to you and yours. Be safe. Be happy.

Cynthia

Comment is about Tommy Carroll (poet profile)

Original item by Tommy Carroll

I can see why reading Eliot would have that effect. The reading experience is never short of intense, metaphysical, uplifting. I used to recite Eliot to myself when I was a teenager as a sort of protective spell from a world to which I felt ill adapted, and as a reminder of greater meaning in it, and it worked. Here I was inspired by two of my favourites, La Figlia che Piange and A Dedication to my Wife.

Comment is about After T.S. Eliot (blog)

Original item by Celia

Thanks J. And Graham. Its hard to explain the attraction of wrestling with numbers. They strike everyone differently I expect.

Comment is about Sudoku (blog)

Original item by Freda Davis

Thanks Martin. x

Comment is about Bus Lane Twat (blog)

Thanks Darren. Fortunately, I don't print out. You've got me wondering now if I should? x

Comment is about Bus Lane Twat (blog)

What Lies Beneath

The sixties
we remember
colourful music
free love
popular liberation.

Below surface
darkness hides
flowing unseen
till disturbed
forgotten heartaches.

Collage light
shines truth
poets telling
actual events
different format.

History books
manufactured words
acceptable viewpoints
without question
till now.

Comment is about Hats off to the 60s (blog)

Original item by Stockport WoL

Harry no need to laff, more read and ponder what you write, more's the like. Tommy

Comment is about Harry O`N eill (poet profile)

Original item by Harry O`N eill

Great representation of each sudoku number.

Comment is about Sudoku (blog)

Original item by Freda Davis

Very clever indeed Freda.
Has a little of the twelve days of Christmas about it too.

Comment is about Sudoku (blog)

Original item by Freda Davis

A gritty poignancy in this Ian.
I like the fossilisation comparison of the dinosaurs/miners/coal itself.
Your analogy works incredibly well 5th stanza particularly.
It has dignity too.

Comment is about Black Christmas (blog)

Original item by Ian Whiteley

thanks so much for your kind comments on 'Herod' Stu - sorry it's taken a while for me to respond - I've been in Austria on holiday - just got back. I know what you mean about Haiku's - I think folk try them because they are 'just 3 lines', but they're bloody difficult to do properly - I write a few, and publish fewer - they either work ands every word counts - or they don't and are banished to haiku hell ;-)
Ian

Comment is about Stuart Buck (poet profile)

Original item by Stuart Buck

thanks so much for your kind comments on 'Herod' Harry - sorry it's taken a while for me to respond - I've been in Austria on holiday - just got back.
Ian

Comment is about Harry O`N eill (poet profile)

Original item by Harry O`N eill

thanks so much for your kind comments on 'Herod' Jackie - sorry it's taken a while for me to respond - I've been in Austria on holiday - just got back.
Ian

Comment is about Jacqueline Phillips (poet profile)

Original item by Jacqueline Phillips

Your house is on fire, and those who *could* help glare
"The road isn't burning. Why don't you sleep there?"

Comment is about QUESTION (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

Tommy,
It might be just me...but somehow the music of the song seems to infuse it with...what?...I can`t help feeling it`s poignancy somehow.

The whole thing `fits` together.

(laugh if you like...but...)

Comment is about Thyme ll (blog)

Original item by Tommy Carroll

Sometimes knowing the enormous number of the things that you don`t know (and yet clinging to those moments you do know) is the very best kind of knowing that there is (there is a kind of humility in it)...and in this.

Comment is about The View (blog)

Original item by David Lindsay

Laura,
where`s the bit about when your mother got you home, washed your mouth out with soap, and tanned your little botty? Or the bit were St Joseph`s dad called around to `reach an understanding` with your dad? :)

Comment is about Nativity ‘73 (a re-post) (blog)

Original item by Laura Taylor

If the question makes you feel uncomfortable, ask yourself why.

Comment is about QUESTION (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

"Where ignorance is bliss
Tis folly to be wise".
Interestingly, Thomas Gray's famous original words have
an application here. Only the self-delusional would claim to be wise in such a convoluted state of affairs. In the
meantime, I bear in mind Dean Koontz's view: "Ignorance
isn't bliss but sometimes it makes it possible to sleep at
night."

Comment is about Bordering On The Rediculous (blog)

Original item by Ian Gant

Thanks Laura xxx

Comment is about Her mother I'll be (blog)

Original item by tina

I was never involved in singing anything like that Harry but the rest of it was standard behavior for some men when I was a kid!

Comment is about AFTER MASS (blog)

Original item by David Subacchi

Thank you Laura. Interesting what sticks in the mind. It was so long ago.

Comment is about AFTER MASS (blog)

Original item by David Subacchi

Hi Rob! Thanks so much for being in touch. I really enjoyed listening to you read on Wednesday, and I am looking forward to reading your story in full, from this simply amazing book. I do hope to see you again soon, and perhaps the rest of your family too-- would love to hear your poetry now, so please keep me informed! Suzanne XX

Comment is about Suzanne Iuppa (poet profile)

Original item by Suzanne Iuppa

I enjoyed going on this journey to your view.
I especially loved your last line, I completely agree :)

Comment is about The View (blog)

Original item by David Lindsay

Is there an island somewhere called "critical acclaim?" If so we should all go there before it's too late. By the way Harold Wilson's wife Mary probably had stuff published and printed - but that's a sort of fame....

Very good that you shared this however painful!! Ray

Comment is about the anxious poet opens his rejections (blog)

Original item by Stuart Buck

HI Laura, and thanks for a great poem. Disrespect is rightly applied - a sort of unholy alliance between fawning parents and obsessive compulsive teachers can only result in such debacles. Good for you. Even worse now with digital cameras at the ready.

Ray (the log man but its been too warm).

Comment is about Nativity ‘73 (a re-post) (blog)

Original item by Laura Taylor

Heh - it's a great one to perform this too :D

Yeh, we've gone proper christmassy this year too - not sure why, but there's tinsel and fairy lights everywhere! :D

A shit robin :D Poem in there ;)

Comment is about Nativity ‘73 (a re-post) (blog)

Original item by Laura Taylor

Lovely David - 'the gentle wheeze of your breath' - tiny details that the poet-in-waiting absorbed :)

Comment is about AFTER MASS (blog)

Original item by David Subacchi

this is brilliant!

Do you know who I am?

I’m the mum of fucking Jesus!

This nativity’s a sham!

haha!

christmas cheer! i'm full of it this year, its my first christmas off in a very long time. we have tinsel and a shit robin and everything!

Comment is about Nativity ‘73 (a re-post) (blog)

Original item by Laura Taylor

i dont mind them really. its hard not to read in to them though! i had a cracker the other day though. im going to be the featured poet on poetrykit early next year. woop and joy!

Comment is about the anxious poet opens his rejections (blog)

Original item by Stuart Buck

Awwwr Tina, lovely. My dear old dad is needing a lot of looking after these days since my mother passed. It's not a stage in life we ever really consider, is it, until it happens?

Nice rhythm, but most importantly, a beautiful and tender poem.

Comment is about Her mother I'll be (blog)

Original item by tina

:D :D

Hahaa - rejections are all part of it mate. I keep a spreadsheet of what I've sent and where to, and the rejections tab is massive compared to the acceptances. I confess to swearing occasionally at the rejectors thinking them simpletons and one day, ONE DAY they will be sorry ;)

I think my favourite one is the simple:

ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

kind regards, everyone

:D

Comment is about the anxious poet opens his rejections (blog)

Original item by Stuart Buck

Wrote this last year but thought it worth a topical re-post.

Remember folks - if you're putting on a Nativity play, give Mary some lines...especially if she's got a defiant gleam in her eye ;)

Comment is about Nativity ‘73 (a re-post) (blog)

Original item by Laura Taylor

Ahh god I remember reading your article Julian - how can that be a whole year ago?!

Our CD should be landing today. Can't wait for Bob to hear it all :)

Comment is about Love is a Battlefield: Louise Fazackerley, Nymphs & Thugs (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

thanks guys! i was just pondering the pro's and cons of being, as it were, a poet and i think the big con (for me anyway) is how personally i take the rejections (foolish in the extreme). thankfully i react with the same positive emotional scale when i am accepted.

Comment is about the anxious poet opens his rejections (blog)

Original item by Stuart Buck

Thanks for your comments guys. It struck me some years ago how desensitised we become about events that are happening around the world. This was brought home by the Vietnam war which was the first war to be so widely reported, warts and all right into our homes. How easily we switch off!

Comment is about Napalm death (blog)

Original item by Martin Elder

I like this format for this piece, it works particularly well. Nice one Lynn

Comment is about Bus Lane Twat (blog)

This has a nice pace to it as well as a brilliant content and description.

Comment is about The View (blog)

Original item by David Lindsay

I must say I haven't yet received quite this level of rejection just yet Stu, but I found this more than a little entertaining. So much so as just getting over a cold I had a coughing fit. Nice one.

Comment is about the anxious poet opens his rejections (blog)

Original item by Stuart Buck

Newberry do you make this stuff up?

Comment is about QUESTION (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

Cynthia, thank you for your comment and suggestion on Some Nights. You are always so kind and helpful. I truly appreciate it. I hope you have a Christmas season filled with love, laughter, and so many smiles :)

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

I love this!!!!

Comment is about It went; (blog)

Original item by Daniel Wardak

Hi Shirley.

This is some of the best news I've heard all year, I'm so pleased for you, what a way to end 2015. A well deserved reward for the all out effort put into the rich mix of everything you do.

You've put Middleton open mic back on the map. See you next month at the Ringers.

Ken xx

Comment is about Poetry student Shirley-Anne Kennedy gets off to flying start (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

I see you`ve tried a bit of shaping with this Alem. I like
the possibilities but, bearing in mind that poetry is mainly
about the words, It is very difficult to fit the sense of what we say into a particular shape (which I think will always be merely suggestive) I think we would need much more sophisticated apps to make it really meaningful.

But - in the meantime - we should experiment now and again.

Comment is about Double victory (blog)

Original item by Alem Hailu G/Kristos

David,
my best memory is before Mass...striding along with some of my kids singing `We are the God squad`to the tune of `we are the champions`.

Another one is watching the men stumbling out of St Anthonys in Scotland road, lighting up desperately, and staggering across Scotty into the pub for a pint.

Comment is about AFTER MASS (blog)

Original item by David Subacchi

like it lynn! the format must cost you a fortune when you print stuff out

daz

Comment is about Bus Lane Twat (blog)

Tim,
I particularly like the clarity of this one, and that last line. You are very readable (and - I`m sure - easy to listen to)

Good luck in your Global ambitions and merry Christmas.

Comment is about Lagoons of sadness (blog)

Original item by Tim Ellis

The final one of the 17 poems that make up "Speak The Unspeakable", so I shall cease depressing you all and leave you alone now. Don't forget the complete pamphlet is available on Amazon and Kindle, or via my website www.birdbard.co.uk
I was delighted that the world leaders managed to sign some sort of agreement on climate change in Paris while I've been posting these poems; not so happy to hear our MPs voted to allow fracking under National Parks yesterday. The fight continues...
Wishing a happy festive season to everybody on Write Out Loud with whom I've exchanged comments recently, and let's hope the new year brings us a cleaner, healthier world!

Comment is about Lagoons of sadness (blog)

Original item by Tim Ellis

Thanks Ravi and Harry. This poem is a part of the story in my book "On The Verge" as well as one of the poems in the recent pamphlet "Speak The Unspeakable", and it makes rather more sense if read in context.

Comment is about Tom's last poem (blog)

Original item by Tim Ellis