Your comment on 'Truncheon for Luncheon' was appreciated M.C.
The reluctance of the NUM to call a proper ballot. The formation of the new NUM (Nottinghamshire Union of Mineworkers), overzealous Policing coupled with a lack of direction by Commanders. The refusal to compromise and see the bigger picture between the Government, Scargill and Thatcher all added to the 'Battle of Orgreave'.
I hope I was able to pen my effort with an open minded approach to the incident. Thank you.

Comment is about M.C. Newberry (poet profile)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

Hi Martin.
Thanks for the kind words on 'Truncheon for Luncheon'. Glad to be back. Writers block and life in general got in the way mate. Still performing locally a couple of times per month. Vespa running like a scene from Quadrophenia... so I've no excuses not to venture North West! Guitar and Verse or a WOL gig.
Hope to meet you at one soon. Will catch up on your poetry. :)

Comment is about Martin Elder (poet profile)

Original item by Martin Elder

I feel it too, at times. You write without fuss, not maudlin or trying to force obvious emotions . Just superb

Comment is about Colour Me In (blog)

Children are very quick to pick off vibes; harried mother probably with so many things to do that she's lost her focus on the real thing: joy.

Beautiful read.

Comment is about Child in a Stroller (blog)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Stunning. Proves that all you need is a heart and genuine feelings, to write...Just superb

Comment is about For Danielle (blog)

Original item by Andy N

sometimes you just gotta just write it all down...like this one.
daz

Comment is about SOMETIMES (blog)

I like this very much

Comment is about In Absentia (blog)

Original item by Celia

Well spotted Colin. I was aware of "he who dares wins" and I find that a bit cheesy, so I reversed cares and dares. after all nature as an entity doesn't care (or is there a God?) That's for another day. I'm glad you spotted as the tyres grip as an impetus. I've been there and suffered - stick to the mtb . And I never wore lycra only cotton!!

Comment is about UPHILL CYCLIST (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Shit! The fact that I have already been blessed/cursed with an addictive personality is not going to do me any favours. Oh well. Bring it on I say lol ;) x

Comment is about Laura Taylor (poet profile)

Original item by Laura Taylor

thanks for posting this one Ray - perhaps in a slightly similar vein to my Junction Desolation? You make the point well -
Not for him the unified force of pissed pleasure
shared without question
No - so many questions.

struggled a tad with the plain / gain line but that's a minor quibble.

Tickets please!

Comment is about SELF ANALYSIS (blog)

Original item by ray pool

the ride starts off deceptively slow but picks up 'as I feel the tyres grip'

I wonder if 'dares' and 'cares' are interchangeable or swappable. I like a bit of cycling - chunky MTB for me not the skinny-thin lycra-clad packs that clog half of Yorks and Lancs roads every weekend - apologies to any lycra-clad road-cycling poets whizzing past this post.

Comment is about UPHILL CYCLIST (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Hi David, it's been quite an inspiring day for me - mostly new stuff, but a couple of revised poems. This one is really a sort of mood picture with no intended meaning - but a bit melancholy, and a sense of history leaving a blueprint on ghostly places.!

Comment is about SKELETON SERVICE (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Thank you for your kind comments Cynthia.

I will try to comment more on the work of others when I can.

Comment is about HEART OF WALES (blog)

Original item by David Subacchi

This featured in a column by one of the London Evening
Standard's regular contributors and got a follow-up from
the poet himself. What fun!!

Comment is about Craig Raine hits back at 'Gatwick' critics (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Hi Cynthia Thanks for comment on 'Going to Mass'.

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Thanks for your thoughts, Huw. I suppose a certain melancholy is what I was portraying, inevitable in the reflective mind. Depression is the arrival where the last train has left as it were.! Im not sure about the fate aspect... but religious conviction can take over the burden for some. I could go on. Cheers. Ray

Comment is about SELF ANALYSIS (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Thank you, people, for reading and commenting.

David, yours is a very interesting take on the poem. IMO, sometimes the 'why's' and 'wherefore's' are just irrelevant, and a special encounter just 'is'. I could do with a lot more of 'just is-ing', because I tend to be very analytical.

Comment is about Child in a Stroller (blog)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Hi Jeremy. Lovely style and beautifully restrained. Tommy
Maybe Huw the auld twat needed a good kicking and to ward off any misplaced defenders, shout 'So you collaborated with the Nazis, you fucking c***!'

Comment is about meeting a nazi (blog)

Original item by jeremy young

Waves not little solar systems indeed. On the movement of time: Even rocks melt (well ripple anyway) and trees (given the opportunity) creep across the landscape. Good post Roy. Tommy

Comment is about Life is Just a Wave (blog)

I sometimes think that it might be ultimately destructive to strip down a poem like this one in the way one strips down an engine , and having faced the component parts, is quite unimpressed with the result. All minds should be given due consideration. Was Hitler not a painter, and Wagner a Nazi symbol. To moralize about private feelings really lines us all up against a wall. "Let him that casts the first stone." Incidentally, I quite enjoy big busts. I'm 71. So there.

Comment is about Craig Raine hits back at 'Gatwick' critics (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Haha Harry, your comment made me laugh. Just don't get started on a Rondeau Redouble. A form I am yet to attempt successfully! That requires more perseverance than I seem to possess :)

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

Original item by Harry O`N eill

Beautifully put Lynn.

Comment is about Colour Me In (blog)

Nice poem . Not over stated, just right.

Comment is about Happy Ending (blog)

Original item by Vanna

Cynthia
This is a lovely poem with such a brilliant end to round it off. 'The whole earth resounding with the glory of the Lord'

Comment is about Child in a Stroller (blog)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Hi Andy
Yep this is definitely a cracker with all that is not said as much as all that is said. Great stuff. See you soon

Comment is about For Danielle (blog)

Original item by Andy N

Once again Tommy you have skillfully said so much with so few well chosen words. nice one

Comment is about Calligraphy (blog)

Original item by Tommy Carroll

Hi Daniel
long time no speak to . Hope you are doing well. Great poem . There was certainly a lot of politics being played with the miners stuck in the middle then. Nice to see you back in the fray again. Keep them coming.
M

Comment is about TRUNCHEON FOR LUNCHEON (blog)

Original item by Daniel Dwyran

I think the miners' "cause" was severely undermined by
the failure of their union leadership to call a proper
ballot and to rely on public acceptance of violent
conduct in pursuit of victory for the "working man"
against an unpopular government. Both were fatal
miscalculations in a country suffering from increasing
levels of disenchantment with what was going on across
the land in industrial disputes that seemed to occur
at the drop of a hat, increasingly perceived as the work
of forces set at odds with the progress most wanted to
see.

Comment is about TRUNCHEON FOR LUNCHEON (blog)

Original item by Daniel Dwyran

Teachers and pupils...a situation fraught with risks to both
which have been around since my own youth - perhaps
a result of the loosening of social morality and respect
that arrived with the post-war throwing off of the shackles
of a more rigid structured society. Back in the mid-60s I
felt obliged to intervene when witnessing a group of East
End lads surrounding a young Asian man who, it quickly
became apparent, was a teacher at their nearby school.
No weapons - but the young mob's chant of threat and
intimidation was evident and the poor victim was virtually
reduced to tears by what was happening to him in that
dockland street one afternoon after school.
As for my own generation at school, I saw teachers keep discipline with a mere stare (and/or an accurately flung piece of chalk) whilst others couldn't have done
it with handcuffs and a cat o'nine tails! Hard to
define - but children are ruthless exploiters of human
weakness or inadequacy they identify in adults, teachers
or otherwise.

Comment is about FEAR OF SCHOOL (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Thank you for your lovely comment Daz. The night was great and my nerves were frazzled by the end but being in good supportive company certainly helps.

Comment is about dazzer (poet profile)

Original item by dazzer

excellent stuff. lot going on here.

defo worth a few reads

Comment is about Materialism (blog)

thanks for the comments, cynthia over my short little poem. This one is a short little poem this wrote for a friend to prove a point really but pleased as always you liked it.

life is good otherwise. you know me plodding along (: (Into running writing workshops more than reading but i may pop up again somewhere).

hope your ok in reverse (:

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

thanks for the comments, laura over my short little poem. This one is a short little poem this wrote for a friend to prove a point really but pleased you liked it. must admit i'm getting more and more into short short short poems nowadays so hopefully will be more to follow in this style soon.

hope you and bob are rocking and hope to see you both soon xx

Comment is about Laura Taylor (poet profile)

Original item by Laura Taylor

thanks for the comments, tommy over my short little poem. this one is a short little poem this wrote for a friend to prove a point really but pleased you liked it.

thanks again.

Comment is about Tommy Carroll (poet profile)

Original item by Tommy Carroll

thanks for the comments, guys. a short little poem this wrote for a friend to prove a point really.

glad you liked it.

Comment is about For Danielle (blog)

Original item by Andy N

Not necessarily - but the sharing of happiness can be a fist in the face to someone who resents it - or an offered lick on a Werther's Original to someone who appreciates it.

Comment is about Happiness (blog)

Original item by Twilbury Wist

Also in sync with the prior comments.

How about:

'Judgements layer up
like bricks and mortar'

The point is crystal clear, and the line reads very strongly with the 'k' sound pressed forward in the first two syllables, followed by the sibilant 's' and the rough 'r's in 'mortar', picking up the 'r' in 'bricks'. IMO, always work sound to your intent. And I think you're after a certain pushy nastiness to open your work.

Always with respect. Could I use AWR? It's shorter.

Comment is about Judgements (blog)

The depth of your work, Andy, goes from strength to strength. This is really good.

Check 'Gloveless' or Glove-less' to see whether you might have meant 'without a glove'.

I hope you are happy.

Comment is about For Danielle (blog)

Original item by Andy N

Taut and tantalizing. The final line is superb, engaging the reader's intense interest. Always a good poetical ploy.

Comment is about Calligraphy (blog)

Original item by Tommy Carroll

A spell-binder, plummeting forward - or down - much like the plane. IMO, one of your best. So many themes slamming together - just like life.

Comment is about Materialism (blog)

Thanks dude,for being a very very nice man! x

Comment is about Daniel Dwyran (poet profile)

Original item by Daniel Dwyran

it's the other way round now Ray - teachers afraid of kids - but don't get me started on our education system!

Comment is about FEAR OF SCHOOL (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Lynn, it's the shattered ''shatterproof ruler / / Underlining, shifting, underlining / And shifting'' that does it for me. I know it relies on my own memories but sometimes, as Tommy suggests, it's precisely this quality that makes a poem memorable.

Comment is about BLAZER POCKET (blog)

The last verse is particularly effective Lynn.

Comment is about RePlaCeMeNT bUs (blog)

Hello Helen, i now see my last comment may have been a bit patronising; i aplogise.

You say writing more formal stuff poses problems in terms of performing. I'd say do what you normally do and get the sound of it right, on your own terms. I'd also say audiences, in my limited experience, generally respond well to formal pieces. Judging by your last few posts there seems to be a stronger emphasis on rhythm and rhyme, something i think audiences like, because it helps dispel the sense that poetry is esoteric and mysterious - my own work gives the lie to that idea.

Whatever you're writing, the fact is you are writing and that's the point, i suppose.

It took me thirty years of very intermittent gigging to reach a point where i can work without notes - i wish i'd started sooner.

Comment is about Helen (poet profile)

Original item by Helen

loved this one, it was well worth the wait until the end in wigan.
daz

Comment is about BLAZER POCKET (blog)

Helen,
Why did you start me off on Rondeau`s?


The best examples for giving the feel of the Rondeau form is the `Shadow Poetry` site. Now even I`m begining to get it.

(See what I mean about starting me off?)

Comment is about Helen (poet profile)

Original item by Helen

Cynthia, you have captured the moment well. I always smile and chat to children. That's all they want - interaction. I also know how it feels to be the crazy, busy mum rushing here and there and perhaps hoping that a kind stranger will smile and chat to my children, to stop me from feeling guilty about being pushed for time!
Enjoyed this :)

Comment is about Child in a Stroller (blog)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Hello John, thanks for your reply, and tentative explanation. I suppose it was slightly unfair to ask for clarification - it's poetry, after all.

What you did say though, describes quite uncomfortably the way i kind of feel myself.

Thanks for your kind comment on my work. Before we descend into a tasteless mutual appreciation, you have a distinct and compelling style of writing, which i like.

Take it easy.

Comment is about Zach Dafoe (poet profile)

Original item by Zach Dafoe

' “Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves''.... Here’s Tom with the weather.'...Bill Hicks

Let that weather change for you. Tommy

Comment is about Zachary (poet profile)

Original item by Zachary