It wasn't the media that sacked Bloom but the Ukip hierarchy, MC. I actually agree with you that the 'sluts' remark was taken a tad out of context. But he was on borrowed time after his 'bong-bongo land' remark, I would imagine, from a party leadership trying to appear more mainstream, and not crammed full of fruitcakes, even though, of course, they still are. Anyway, I hope you don't include the hard-working operatives at Write Out Loud in your poetic assault on the media. I note that Bloom was unable to bottle it up any longer and laid into one reporter with a copy of the Ukip brochure. Your kind of guy?

Comment is about FADING BLOOM (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

very powerful piece Dave - there is a real resonance in what is not being said as much as what is there - it gives the reader space to wonder....the repetition of the word 'safety' early on lulls you into a false sense of security - and whilst the pay off isn't gory it is still quietly horrific - I think this one would work really well when read live - good stuff mate
Ian

Comment is about It's different (blog)

Original item by Dave Bradley

Re; 'Pebble on Bournemouth Beach',thank you very much Cynthia - always good to have an expert opinion & an encouraging one at that. x

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Agree with Cynthia - powerful. 'Somewhere very different says it all'. Cheers. P.

Comment is about It's different (blog)

Original item by Dave Bradley

what is outside-
can be left aside:
as we have it all
actually inside

Comment is about Inside Us (blog)

Original item by Nigel Astell

:)

Comment is about Clues of Curiosity (blog)

Original item by Nigel Astell

world of colors
inspiring lovers
to love it

Comment is about Clues of Curiosity (blog)

Original item by Nigel Astell

I still think your poem is terrific, and I'm glad you've put it up again for new WOLers.

I think that a flexible mind can be very adaptive, and open to suggestion. IMO, all art is just that - a peep hole to see into the artist's mind, the connection depending entirely upon the viewer's own experience. How can you relate to what you've never known?

Comment is about Liverpool Tate (blog)

Original item by Tommy Carroll

Excellent, just plain - excellent.

Comment is about It's different (blog)

Original item by Dave Bradley

For me, as a new-comer,
so cool to have a first-comer,
having noticed my existence,
writing comments with persistence!
I'm so grateful, happy, glad!
you are driving this girl mad!
Thank you Nigel, you are great!
Write me more, my poet-mate!

Comment is about Nigel Astell (poet profile)

Original item by Nigel Astell

Dave, I have never seen the Leonard Cohen poem before. Thank you for sharing it with me. The ideas do seem to conjoin, and then fly apart. The similarity of vocabulary is a bit shocking. But it's bound to be a fairly common metaphor among people who think about things along certain lines of interest. It gave me a bit of a shiver.

Comment is about Dave Bradley (poet profile)

Original item by Dave Bradley

Dave, I have never seen this poem before. Thank you for sharing it with me. The ideas do seem to conjoin, and then fly apart. The similarity of vocabulary is a bit shocking. But it's bound to be a fairly common metaphor among people who think about things along certain lines of interest.

Comment is about Metaphor (blog)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

I could; but you don't have to match it word for word. My Afghan Anthem is about half the length of Anthem For Doomed Youth. Remember, it's meant to be a starting point.

I think Nigel's is a perfect response. I'm rather envious!

Comment is about Stockport WOL Prompt 9/9/13 (blog)

Original item by Stockport WoL

It is a rather long poem, Linda. Can't you find a shorter one?

Comment is about Stockport WOL Prompt 9/9/13 (blog)

Original item by Stockport WoL

Thanks Guys. That's down to Andy who came up with great answers to my questions.

Comment is about Smokestack champions the radical and unfashionable (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Thank you ms.:)

Comment is about Pub Singer (blog)

Original item by Neil Fawcett

Ooo a very atmospheric and evocative piece this...that line about the red nails is immensely pleasing to the eye/ear.

Comment is about Pub Singer (blog)

Original item by Neil Fawcett

Ha, love it Tommy!

Comment is about Liverpool Tate (blog)

Original item by Tommy Carroll

Ticks a few boxes for me too! Hmmm...might be sending a few off to these guys I reckon.

Nice piece, Frances.

Comment is about Smokestack champions the radical and unfashionable (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Morning!

Haha love the juggling metaphor! No, I know what you mean about it working for you - plenty of times it's been that way for me too, where people don't seem to read it the way I hear it in my head, and in my head, the metre is perfect. No worries mate :)

It's a great poem, you should be made up with it :)

Comment is about Ian Whiteley (poet profile)

Original item by Ian Whiteley

Rock on Tommy! You make your point well and with humour, which I love :)

There's no intrinsic value to much of what gets displayed in these galleries - it's throw away art that might make you think for a minute, but no longer than that.

I've never got too involved in arguments over piles of bricks before or arguing about what art should be - I don't have the energy. And the art exhibition where dead people were opened up and put on display - I found that macabre but not offensive.

Exploitation and degradation of the living is something else though, I find that inexcusable.

Comment is about Liverpool Tate (blog)

Original item by Tommy Carroll

disappointed to not meet locals in Edinburgh for an advertised book reading group, I discover where the Scottish Poetry Library is, then do an impromptu "reading" to a fellow-traveller on the train through to Bristol :)

Comment is about S'hi D'Amour (poet profile)

Original item by S'hi D'Amour

hey Laura - many thanks (once again) for your kind and thoughtful comments on 'cycle of the scarecrow'. I'm really pleased with this one because I originally blogged just one of the 4 'quartets' as a finished piece and then realised there was more to be done :-)
Interesting points about the metre - cos it does work for me (8 syllable count per line) but, because of the technical difficulty in getting all the monorhymes to fit - it makes it bloody hard to keep the meaning, metre, syllable count and rhyme all in sync - like juggling 4 hot pokers with 8 plates of jelly
:-) I'll have a look at it - but, as I say, when I read it I can make the metre work - so it may just be an 'on the paper' glich
Ta
Ian

Comment is about Laura Taylor (poet profile)

Original item by Laura Taylor

thanks for your kind comments on 'cycle of the scarecrow' Starfish - really pleased you like it and keep sticking at the form - it took me a lot of goes to get everything to fit right - but once it does - the feeling is amazing when you think 'ah - NOW it works' :-)
Ian

Comment is about Starfish (poet profile)

Original item by Starfish

thanks for your kind comments on 'cycle of the scarecrow' Jane - I'm glad that you liked it
Ian

Comment is about jane wilcock (poet profile)

Original item by jane wilcock

All done Nigel! This poetess is going to take a little break now as I am starting on my new collection , will be back with some new material soon : ) x

Comment is about Nigel Astell (poet profile)

Original item by Nigel Astell

Yes it did a bit! Thank you for your comment : ) katy

Comment is about Andy N (poet profile)

Original item by Andy N

Me performed at the wolverhampton Art Gallery in 2012.

I enjoyed that performance !

Comment is about picture (photo)

Original item by Marcia Calame

Great idea Laura - I'll have to plan a few more trips to Liverpool - and somehow find a way of blinding all those guards/guides they have hanging around - now I understand why they need so many...

We've missed you too Jane. WOL goes through waves - times when people have time to read and post, and times when they don't. It's always great when friends come back - they add so much value to the site.

Ian - I'm not sure if my poem is a thing of beauty - it was a quick write to vent emotions that were churning me up inside. I feel better for having done it. Art should provoke as well as entertain - but provoke thought for all the right reasons, not the wrong.

I'm just happy if my poem has managed that.

Thank you all again for taking the time to think about it and comment.

Comment is about Turning Over Tables (blog)

Original item by Isobel

To dig
then find
nothing underneath
dig again.

Comment is about Stockport WOL Prompt 9/9/13 (blog)

Original item by Stockport WoL

It seems these poems are aiming to show the reality behind the romantic and pastoral notions that some of us (or me at least) still harbour about country life. I married into a farming family but its easy to forget how relatively comfortable urban existence can sometimes be. Thanks for a great review Cato.

Comment is about Red Devon: Hilary Menos, Seren (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

lot of images in this, marianne. excellent stuff. really enjoyed reading this.

Comment is about Punk (blog)

Original item by Marianne Daniels

Left-field, championing the unfashionable? Well, I guess that ticks a couple of boxes for me. Thanks for this interesting interview with a publisher outside the metropolitan mainstream, Frances.

Comment is about Smokestack champions the radical and unfashionable (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

I can empathise greatly with this having gone through it thrice - and it doesn't get any easier. I even get sad when I pass others on the motorway (cars piled high) enduring the same 'trauma'. The emotion is captured well in this poem.
Starfish

Comment is about Independence Day (blog)

Original item by jane wilcock

Brilliant idea and well executed. Really thoughtful use of rhyme here, keeping each stanza in the one end rhyme.

I bloody love poems that have a cycle...something so satisfying about them.

The story behind it is great too - bit gothic, bit spooky, otherworldly. Who hasn't looked at a scarecrow and shivered to think of it coming alive?!

If there was one thing I would look at, it would be the rhythm in these lines:

ice world. His skeletal delight

with snow-flesh - waiting for coal sight.

Your metre is so strong in the rest of the poem and it falters a little in these two lines.

Enjoyed this Ian - it's great watching you try out loads of different styles and ideas :)

Comment is about Cycle Of The Scarecrow (blog)

Original item by Ian Whiteley

You know what? I think you should print your poem onto flyers, and leave them lying about the Tate. Also, put one up right alongside the video.

Direct action!

Comment is about Turning Over Tables (blog)

Original item by Isobel

Really like this. Impressive. Have tried to use the format and failed miserably. Clever man!
Starfish

Comment is about Cycle Of The Scarecrow (blog)

Original item by Ian Whiteley

This is a great poem cycle and I empathise with the l scarecrow! Lovely images.

Comment is about Cycle Of The Scarecrow (blog)

Original item by Ian Whiteley

A powerful poem .

Comment is about Tunnels (blog)

Original item by Tom

Hi Isobel,
You dont need to see the sweat shops of India through a hidden camera, just turn on the telly and watch them tumble, swallowing their workers in our vicarious greed.
The desire for "shock and awe" is no different and I doubt it completes its aims, as the USA found,but more concerningly it might.
I have mised you and those other thoughtful poets that have summarised!

Comment is about Turning Over Tables (blog)

Original item by Isobel

Powerful, Cynthia. For some reason (perhaps you can explain the connection) it made me think of Song of Isaac by Leonard Cohen -

You who build these altars now
To sacrifice these children,
You must not do it anymore.
A scheme is not a vision
And you never have been tempted
By a demon or a god.
You who stand above them now,
Your hatchets blunt and bloody,
You were not there before,
When I lay upon a mountain
And my father's hand was trembling
With the beauty of the word.

And if you call me brother now,
Forgive me if I inquire,
"Just according to whose plan?"
When it all comes down to dust
I will kill you if I must,
I will help you if I can.
When it all comes down to dust
I will help you if I must,
I will kill you if I can...."

Comment is about Metaphor (blog)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Let out of class early eh Greg! Glad to see you're still on top form & you are right of course to rejoice in the challenge of becoming a retiree. Keep those horizons coming & an eagle eye open for forthcoming evening events in Woking library, if you haven't already done so of course.

Comment is about Phoenix (blog)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Axiom - as illustrated by kids who f & blind on mobiles & think it acceptable to do so. I thoroughly enjoyed this poem Cynthia rich with metaphors which have the reader gripped. Although I have to say that man is not alone in his capacity for cruelty, as one commentator suggests.x

Comment is about Metaphor (blog)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

thanks for your comments on 'she wears pink' Win - glad you liked it - I'm hoping to cover some other aspects of the JFK assassination as we come up to the 50th anniversary - so this one is a forerunner
cheers
Ian

Comment is about Winston Plowes (poet profile)

Original item by Winston Plowes

thanks for commenting on 'the scarecrow dreams of leaving' Harry - glad you liked it - must admit it's been playing on repeat in my head - so much so that I've revisited and extended it to cover all 4 seasons (see latest blog post) I'd be interested to see if you feel it is as effective in its extended form or whether better read as an individual piece - as always I appreciate your comments
Ian

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

Original item by Harry O`N eill

thanks for commenting on 'stroke' Terry - pleased that you liked it - it was written from bitter experience unfortunately
Ian

Comment is about terry ireland (poet profile)

Original item by terry ireland

art portrayed as the vile - it is an unworthy piece of crap that doesn't deserve a commission - HOWEVER - the unfortunate thing about shock art from 'artists' who have more or less run out of ideas, is that they use it to create controversy which fuels their notoriety and is therefore self perpetuating. I'm not sure what the best response to this sort of abomination really is - it's too easy to say ignore it - because why should we - it's also unlikely to be removed from display because the Tate will see the £ signs in any sort of controversy - they are, after all, social whores. I think the only way to counteract this sort of trash is to provide alternative art - that simply highlights what is wrong with the idea of this type of art - and in that respect your poem is a thing of beauty Isobel. keep fighting the good fight.
Ian

Comment is about Turning Over Tables (blog)

Original item by Isobel

love this Jane - pretty much agree with what everyone else has said - particularly good use of language and image and the 'screwdriver rain' line IS very effective. I also like the nice simple end line that jars against the lengthier and more image rich lines that precede it - it works very well

Ian

Comment is about Independence Day (blog)

Original item by jane wilcock

Sex and poetry
inside red room
still hold me
the longest minute - -
only some of the lines that you see on his face when the door opens.

Comment is about Ouroborus (blog)

Original item by Katy Megan

Well done Andy. Fitting and sensitive. I, for one, will never forget the big bell tolling across this city the morning after.

Comment is about Hillsborough (blog)

Original item by Andy N