Stunning imagery

Comment is about Not Quite a Goodbye (blog)

Original item by A.M. Clarke

Brilliant! And I love the title as much as the actual piece.

Comment is about Ctrl B (blog)

Original item by Stuart Buck

Howdy Stu! Just wanted to say I am loving all the different styles you are kicking out. They are all like a daily surprise and I look forward to each new one :)

Comment is about Stuart Buck (poet profile)

Original item by Stuart Buck

Thank you for your comment on 'I AM...' :) Very much appreciated.

Comment is about Martin Elder (poet profile)

Original item by Martin Elder

This is clever in that not only does it take a touchy subject and make it jovial (in poetic terms anyway) but the repetition and language mirrors the over familiarity alcohol brings.

i dont know if that makes much sense, but i just fell asleep in the bath so i am not at my most verbose...

Comment is about We'd drink (blog)

Original item by Michelle

Michelle snap Tommy

Comment is about We'd drink (blog)

Original item by Michelle

Thanks Dave. This was written a long time ago, but I still kinda like it.

Comment is about We'd drink (blog)

Original item by Michelle

Spot on Amit!

Steve,
those last two lines sound a bit ominous.

Comment is about I Hope The Train Breaks Down (blog)

Original item by Steve Higgins

Alas, Cynthia, `twas ever thus.

Or as one of my old negotiating buddies once passionately shouted out in (of all places) the middle of a very crowded
Waterloo station.

`If sex is so fantastic, and most of the population had it last night, why isn`t everyone walking around with a huge
smile on their face?`

(we got him out just before the police arrived)...:)

Comment is about For her (blog)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

We were on holiday in St Ives and at another open mic in The Union Inn one of the musicians told me about Café Frug so we went along on the Thursday evening.

We arrived early and the host, Bob was very welcoming. The venue is a small theatre with a stage and lights and good acoustics (no microphone needed) and people bring their own drinks.

The session was opened by Bob with talented musician Adrian O'Reilly and then a round of open mic slots followed by a break and more of the same.

We had a great time and I've written more about the night on my blog at:

www.shaythinkingtoomuch.blogspot.com

Review is about Cafe Frug on 13 Aug 2015 (event)

HI Colin. Thanks for your comments on a poem about nothing. Written out of desperation but you know the tap won't turn now and again.
I thought this poem very illuminating and life affirming. I don't know why but I thought of Winston Smith as played by John Hurt in 1984 in bed with that super sexy lass.

Comment is about sleepnow and movecloser (blog)

I really like
'And with every one of his
Slow
Careful
Controlled breaths'
- separating the words makes us read it like we're taking
Slow
Careful
Controlled breaths.

Some interesting images but does a high wire walker 'trudge'? - feels a bit heavy footed to me.

Good to see you back and posting Sharlie.

Comment is about The High Wire Walker (blog)

Original item by Sharlie

when you write a poem about 'nothing coming to mind' does that mean that writer's block is just around the corner - I hope not Ray - I enjoy reading your work too much.

'multiples of nothing don't amount to much' - how true in so many ways.

Comment is about ABOUT NOTHING (blog)

Original item by ray pool

thanks for reading and taking time to comment Tommy and Ray - much appreciated

Comment is about deep south (blog)

the fear of death is it or the joys of living?

Comment is about I Hope The Train Breaks Down (blog)

Original item by Steve Higgins

Hi Tommy
Thanks for your comments on down the pub. I think I prefer witherspoons as opposed to the alternative.
Cheers
Martin

Comment is about Tommy Carroll (poet profile)

Original item by Tommy Carroll

I like this a lot Cynthia particularly 'The whispering dialogue of the trees'.

Comment is about For her (blog)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

This has got to have been one of the better ones.

Comment is about August Collage Poem: Making Poetic Hay (blog)

Original item by Stockport WoL

very cinematic and dramatic Colin, gets you right in there with the action. Smoldering. Very neatly put together.

Comment is about deep south (blog)

Interesting form Col, it seems to start with Raymond Carver and end with...f Scott Fitzgerald

Comment is about deep south (blog)

Thank you for all your lovely comments! I am so busy at work crunching numbers I wonder why I ever went to LSE to do this work! I will definitely want to see what you created, so just bear with me till I finish with the madness @ work.

Comment is about Corr Lens (poet profile)

Original item by Corr Lens

This is again, brilliant, and so you. On paper I'm a sage. So am I.
Love your work.

Comment is about Security I Guess (blog)

Original item by Corr Lens

Hello Again, Thanks for such detailed explanation.
I must confess the poem is beyond my understanding, and its complexities get me even more attracted to it now.

I'd failed to comprehend the intensity of the words and now that I have read your explanation, I find parts of it ( a shortcoming of my understanding).

It is still brilliant, and I will definitely give it couple of thorough readings now.

Thank you!

Comment is about Little David (blog)

Original item by Harry O`N eill

Amit,
Thanks for your comment. and for your question
which gives me a chance for a little self-reflection on
what I was trying to do with this.

It `came about` due to a family story of my grandson
who once, at a funeral, asked would he also die, and
when he was told `yes` promptly screamed and fled
the room. He was only a young child.

The core of the poem is about how intolerable such
`news` is to the innocently unprepared, and how the
rest of us adapt personal strategies for dealing with it.

The form of it is (I think) a result of me getting a bit
too involved with reading about reception theory,
and themic `strategies and repertoires` (which really
is just a way of anticipating what you and the reader
expectationally share.)

For instance: the exclamation mark in the first line is
a kind of shock that the child should have been given
such information in such a funereal place. The second
stanza an attempt to show the change that lifelessness
brings about to the eyes of a child.

The smaller - italicised - sentence is the pith of the the
child`s actual question...the point of it`s size, iatalic and
separation, is that it should be recognised(a la reception
style) to be so. (I played around with the idea of doing the
same thing by calling the poem David`s question)

The last two stanzas (by contrasting tender and calloused
flesh) attempt to make the reader feel the terrible reality
of the death sentence we are all under.

The (decent:)) into rhyme and updated repetition of Little
David`s action is to give the poem a `reminding` shape on
the page...and to imply that that is what we would all do
If we really felt what physical death is.

I apologise if all this seems a bit too `thought out`...but it
is - roughly - what went on in my head while doing it.

Thanks again for your interest.

Comment is about Little David (blog)

Original item by Harry O`N eill

Hanging on lines of mad mental madness we have escaped from this caged Collage poem.

Comment is about August Collage Poem: Making Poetic Hay (blog)

Original item by Stockport WoL

Howdy Stu

Ha - thank you :) Well, I've been doing this for five years now! It might help if I told you that for the first two years, I spent the entire day before doing an open mic wanting to erupt from every orifice! I had shocking nerves! It does get easier the more you do it, trust me. And open mics are a wonderfully supportive space to learn your craft cos everyone knows how terrifying it is :) I still get nervous, but now it's mainly a brief feeling of 'shit I'm gonna pass out' right before I get on stage hehe :D

Hard-won advice:

Practice is EVERYTHING. Speak it out loud repeatedly. Do it until it sounds like it felt in your head when you wrote it - that's one of the hardest things to actually get right. Make your mouth used to the words. Find the pauses. Don't be afraid of them - they are powerful things.

Practice much slower than your actual performance will be. EVERYONE speeds up behind a mic. This will ensure that when the time comes, there will be balance.

Remember that no one wants you to fail. They all want you to do well.

If you're getting up on a stage and taking up other people's time however, make it fun/enjoyable/heartbreaking for them :) Don't you want them to feel exactly how you felt when writing the poem? Can't you feel how Jeff Mangum feels?

When you stand behind the mic, take a nice deep breath down to your gut. It takes a couple of seconds, no one will notice, and it will steady you and provide much-needed oxygen! Stops the initial vocal wobble too :)

Good luck and keep writing :)

Comment is about Stuart Buck (poet profile)

Original item by Stuart Buck

Thanks Amit

Comment is about THE BALLAD OF THE FRIGHTENED EAGLE (blog)

Original item by THE PEN AND THE PAGE

Thank you so much, Amit.

Comment is about POOLS OF LOVE (blog)

Original item by THE PEN AND THE PAGE

Thanks for your kind words, M.

Comment is about POETIC PULSE (blog)

Original item by THE PEN AND THE PAGE

Like very much.

Comment is about For her (blog)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Really enjoyed this one Stu. I agree with Laura for favourite line.

Comment is about Brenda #2 (blog)

Original item by Stuart Buck

Many thanks for your comments, chaps. Graham, you may be assured that a version of the postscript to this story will be appearing on Trip Advisor in due course. Trev, the intro has got me wondering about my own record for straight rums at a certain pub in Clerkenwell, every second Monday in the month ...

Comment is about From the Boathouse to Brown's Hotel: on the trail of Dylan Thomas at Laugharne (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Thank you Cynthia. Untwisted is so apt for this!

It is just about the different communities in Oldham who think they are separate but need each other.

Also it is about a mill that only made the weft.

C x

Comment is about Not White To Weft (early poem for public art sculpture in Oldham) (blog)

Original item by CathyLCrabb

Nice work!

very entertaining!

Comment is about THE BALLAD OF THE FRIGHTENED EAGLE (blog)

Original item by THE PEN AND THE PAGE

thank you Amit for you lovely insightful comment

Comment is about The Big Picture (blog)

Original item by David R Mellor

hats off to you.

Comment is about POOLS OF LOVE (blog)

Original item by THE PEN AND THE PAGE

Amazing!!

Thats a script of a lover!
How beautifully have you taken moments from people who are in love and described them.
An absolute pleasure to read sir!

Comment is about POOLS OF LOVE (blog)

Original item by THE PEN AND THE PAGE

Hello!

The beginning and perhaps the title suggested it would be a light hearted poem, but it turned out so full of depth and perspectives (that one can draw).

If I can ask of you this, what is the implication of the last stanza and the end?

Comment is about Little David (blog)

Original item by Harry O`N eill

I could imagine every detail you described and the more I read the worse my stomach felt. I could see the clutter and filth and there was a disgust building up inside me.

'The cabinets slouch under the weight of nostalgia' will be a line that sticks with me for weeks. Already it has taken me back to a place, a memory I thought was gone. I like poetry that does that. (not so much the remembering of shit I thought was gone) But poetry that has that power, I love that. Nicely done!

Comment is about Brenda #2 (blog)

Original item by Stuart Buck

She offered herself – a gift

He wanted her – a prize


Those 2 lines spoke volumes to me. Perfection really! And I agree with you when it comes to getting the ideas down before sleep robs them from you.

Comment is about For her (blog)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

I'd watch marbles if we were beating theAussies.

Comment is about IT'S NOT 5-0 IS IT NOW, GLENN (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Well - I always said it was impossible to pick just one album as your favourite, but yes, it's mine too, and I never thought I'd ever have one.

Nice one :) It's rare to find another fan, and it usually tells me an awful lot about a person if they are a fan, so thank you for the addition :)

We went to see them last year actually - spent the entire gig with me gob on the floor trying not to cry :D

Comment is about spaghetti junction (blog)

Original item by Stuart Buck

your youtube performances are fab! ive only just started doing open mics and its nerve wracking. you look like you dont suffer!

Comment is about Laura Taylor (poet profile)

Original item by Laura Taylor

got it in one. nightclubs took my soul and left me with brittle bones. glad your enjoying my work, im currently reading through yours as well and enjoying it.

Comment is about drop (blog)

Original item by Stuart Buck

Ha - some of us re-visit on occasion for real ;) I recently lost the ENTIRE plot during a Utah Saints gig at a festie :D

The molecular

re arr a ng e me nt

brilliant that - could almost feel the bass go through me. At least, that's what I think you're talking about.

Comment is about drop (blog)

Original item by Stuart Buck

Intriguing for its word-pictures - albeit that I'm not sure
about "the paucity of music" in any context - and I
enjoyed the casual evocation of mum leaning over the shoulder etc., These things strike the common
experience chord in our lives.

Comment is about privilege (blog)

Original item by jeremy young

:D :D Haha :D Brilliant!

You seem to have appeared on WOL just as I took an extended break. Am enjoying reading through your stuff. Keep writing.

Comment is about counterpoint (blog)

Original item by Stuart Buck

My apologies for my early departure yesterday evening: I wasn't feeling too well (think I've been overdoing things somewhat; trying hard to stop doing so!) Thank you so much for your concern: I just love being part of this group! See you next time for the full two hours!!!
Love, Dorinda x

Comment is about Stockport WoL (group profile)

Original item by Stockport WoL

My apologies for my early departure yesterday evening: I wasn't feeling too well (think I've been overdoing things somewhat; trying hard to stop doing so!) Thank you so much for your concern: I just love being part of this group! See you next time for the full two hours!!!
Love, Dorinda x

Comment is about Stockport WoL (group profile)

Original item by Stockport WoL

its my favourite album of all time, if one can claim such a thing. i particularly love it for the fact that 90% of people just hear noise. i shall credit young jeff now, it was slack of me really. id never take any acclaim for others work, hopefully ive adapted his work enough to call it my own (ish)

Comment is about spaghetti junction (blog)

Original item by Stuart Buck