A landslide of evocative words to suffocate the reader - almost in ecstasy, unable to escape. An amazing portrait of two women, and an incisive swipe at 'programmed female values'. I love your imagination reined in like magnificent horses under your brilliant crafting.
Comment is about The Ugly Sister (blog)
Original item by Marianne Daniels
I wonder how many people do realise exactly how much effort is involved in creating a successful poetry night? Hats off to you Lettie, many thanks for sharing your experience and the best of luck for the future. Well, it's not luck is it?
Comment is about Word of Mouth, The Last Refuge, Peckham (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
.... excellent writing Marianne ...
Comment is about The Ugly Sister (blog)
Original item by Marianne Daniels
Thank you for commenting on the H-bomb Izz. Don't think I've ever had a treble comment before. It's curious isn't it how we all manage to live with these things that could wipe out humanity at any time? Of course, it's never happened so it won't happen.
Comment is about Isobel (poet profile)
Original item by Isobel
Well timed piece Isobel. I was having a conversation with a friend recently about the dignity of the WW1 and WW2 veterans who despite all that had happened, just came back and took up their lives, brought children up and continued living. Compared to this younger generation who get injured in these bloody stupid skirmishes in Afghanistan and Iraq who now become paralympic athletes and do olympian challenges etc etc.
I can only imagine how I would feel if I had lost anyone in any sort of conflict.
It is always good to remember these people.
Comment is about Remembrance Observation (blog)
Original item by Isobel
To the Poetry Cafe on a sudden whim, because my shift had ended earlier than usual. Arrived there to find the basement so crowded the overflow audience was camped out all the way up the stairs. The venue in Covent Garden’s Betterton Street is undoubtedly cramped, and sweaty. Is it becoming a victim of its own success, and of the burgeoning popularity of poetry? No matter. The girl at the bar assured me that I’d be able to get a seat after the break and so I decided to linger on the ground floor and see how things panned out after a glass or two of red wine, content at first to inspect the artwork and poems of Maggie Butt’s collection about imagined, 21st century patron saints that was unveiled there last week. There is her saint of rank outsiders, for instance:
“Remember Cassius and Sonny,
Sunderland and Leeds, Foinavon,
a hundred to one. Go on, try”
This is, of course, a fine maxim for any budding poet. I fell into conversation with Peter Ebsworth, editor of London’s South Bank Poetry magazine, who was also stranded on the ground floor, even though he had been booked in to read, and eventually had to clamber down past the bodies on the stairs when his name was called. (By happy coincidence Peter is publishing a poem of mine in the next magazine, a snip at £3.50, in spring 2013). At half-time I seized my chance, nipped downstairs, and managed to secure a seat in the back row. What to say about the second half? The audience was still packed, the atmosphere relaxed and happy, the performers – many of them “Poetry Unplugged virgins” - dropping in to read from places such as Estonia and California. Host Niall O’Sullivan was rigorous but fair in his timekeeping, cutting a few poets off in their prime, and providing quick-fire banter in between. The virgins acquitted themselves very well, on the whole. The audience departed smiling, stimulated, and buzzing.
http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=32702
http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/content/cafe/events/
Review is about Poetry Unplugged on 13 Nov 2012 (event)
I actually DID check out your website. : /
Comment is about Texperiments: Winston reflects on 'amazing' response (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Hi Francine, thanks for that. The poems shown were derived from different experiments so you will not see the ‘divergence’ in these examples but you will if you look at these poetry experiments on my site here - http://www.winstonplowes.co.uk/#/projects-npd-full-results/4570513891
Comment is about Texperiments: Winston reflects on 'amazing' response (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
The imagery and wordplay are consistent and inventive, with a priceless pay-off. This smacks of a lot of hard work honing the content.
Comment is about Omniverse (blog)
Original item by Dave Carr
The great lyricist Alan Jay Lerner found a
similar inspiration, albeit in a more romantic vein, with his lyric for his Oscar winning song "Gigi". For example:
"Oh Gigi, while you were trembling on the brink
Was I out yonder somewhere blinking
At a star?
Oh Gigi, have I been standing up too close
Or back too far?"
Harry - your words are a rare delight and fully
deserving of all the praise you have obtained.
Comment is about FOR LINDA ...Just turned fourteen....? (blog)
JC - you can be trusted to leave no Stone unturned!
An inspired "pop" at the sharers of fractured
jaws.
More please!
Comment is about Avant-Garde Verse - The Last Rhyme (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
I knew someone who actually did this. He retired and drove off around Europe doing his thing. I recall him returning to his old neck of the woods once but nothing thereafter. Maybe he found his idea of heaven and just decided to go where his fancy took him. I did get one letter - from a winter haven at some campsite in Spain -but nothing more. Bert - that was his name - would
probably say "Go for it! You only live once".
Comment is about Camper Van (blog)
Original item by Steve Higgins
hi, just wanted to say a belated thank you for the comments on my poems :-)
Kath
Comment is about hugh (poet profile)
Original item by hugh
This poem is haunting me now.
We went home
and left the field to others.
How eerie is that?
Comment is about The decision to develop the H-bomb (blog)
Original item by Dave Bradley
I'm not a fan of the rhyme in this but like the way you've played with ideas and the imagery you've used Dave.
Comment is about Bread and Water (blog)
Original item by Dave Bradley
A powerful poem. The H bomb and all its implications...
In the wake of all the remembrance ceremonies, I am reminded of how massive world wars and loss of life has been reduced by the H bomb. There is some irony in that.
Comment is about The decision to develop the H-bomb (blog)
Original item by Dave Bradley
I liked the first 6 lines :)
I'm not trying to be cheeky or anything - they just stood out to me. The cleverness is in picking them out of a report and using them as part of a poem.
I do think the second verse needs working on but I disagree with Steve. I would delete the first 4 lines of the second verse and end with:-
Going home was a mistake.
Home is where the heart is.
The others didn't go home
In fact I'd play around with those 3 lines - get rid of the 'home is where the heart is' cos that's cheesy. Replace it with something more simple but hard hitting and end with the line you ended on :)
Comment is about The decision to develop the H-bomb (blog)
Original item by Dave Bradley
Ouais, j'ai bien rigolé chaque fois que je chantais <<Old MacDonald Had a Farm>> en français. Je pense que c'est le fait qu'on entend les sons différents dans chaque langue…
Comment is about testing (blog)
Original item by Poetry in Translation Group
Well it wasn't really Nigel sending a note all unclad, rather a reference to his suggestion that some WOL attendees run up and down the Art Gallery steps as part of our protest...
I think that I should volunteer
Although the weather is drear
For what I see so clear:-
If I parade, starkers, up and down
It might cause many and many a frown....
For what I'm trying to say
Is on such an auspicious day
The effect will surely be
The response from Stockport mbc
Will be, as in one breath:
'She scared us half to death! -
If you'll take her away - - -
We'll let Write Out Loud stay!!!'
Ho hum! - love from Dorinda
(quite respectably dressed, I must add!)
Comment is about Nigel's Naked Note... (blog)
Original item by Dorinda MacDowell
Peter explained to everyone that all normal channels to cut costs had been attemped by himself.
He asked the group if we could come up with any ideas that we thought might help, he said he would do his best to see if these could work before any final decision is made by the council.
I thought the meeting went very well and felt he had given us a platform to help towards solving the problem rather than just oppose him and the council.
Comment is about Stockport WoL (group profile)
Original item by Stockport WoL
Surely not a rip-off but a cento, innit?
Surely not a rip-off but a cento, innit?
If I've told you once...
Yeah, I enjoyed this.
Comment is about Avant-Garde Verse - The Last Rhyme (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
J'adore le fait que les mots pour les mêmes sons sont differents, comme toc, toc, et <coin coin> pour <quack quack>.
c'est un peu bizarre, n'est-ce pas?
Comment is about testing (blog)
Original item by Poetry in Translation Group
Thanks for your comments on my poem John - much appreciated.
Comment is about John Coopey (poet profile)
Original item by John Coopey
Hi Chris, I really enjoyed listening to ABC and
Yesterdays post, very poignant.
regards Paul.
Comment is about Chris Co (poet profile)
Original item by Chris Co
Hi john, I didnt mean to insult prisoners in jail and stereotype them,its just that I remember Talking to prison officers who'd
had shit thrown at them or smeared in their faces by prisoners in jail!for some strange reason it just brought it to mind !
As for the guilt thing there can be no guilt for Monkeys, even cheeky ones.
regards Paul.
Comment is about Ape Shit (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
I'm beginning to doubt the sun actually exists after this year! Nice poem and I esp like the last two lines. (I'll have that song going round in my head all day now :)
Comment is about The Sun's Mythology (blog)
Original item by Janice Windle
Hi Janice - nice to see you posting. It's true what you say about putting everything online when you may want to enter it in a comp. Often people don't realise that doing this counts as being published - though some do argue the point! Good luck with the pop ups too :)
BTW if you want to reply to somebody on here it's best to post your reply on their page - I nearly missed your comment here.
Comment is about Janice Windle (poet profile)
Original item by Janice Windle
Well, I find this interesting, though I couldn't quite follow the divergence.
My fave lines from what you posted here...
'Let me dream
wandering pathways. Looking for that
perfect moon'
'The genius box
hides foolish sins.'
This experiment reminds me of the poem 'Bone Dry (and Destitute) - the plight of two children. I no longer see the original though.
Comment is about Texperiments: Winston reflects on 'amazing' response (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Lovely : )
Full of interesting and sentimental imagery!
Comment is about Intermission (blog)
Original item by Marianne Daniels
Ouais, je suis souvent là, mais parfois pas... ; )
Comment is about testing (blog)
Original item by Poetry in Translation Group
Oooooooooooo is that a promise? I'd LOVE to do a duet with you! There are endless possiblities - Sonny and Cher - I've got you babe - When I get old and losing my hair - Nancy and Frank Sinatra - Then I go and spoil it all by saying something stupid like....
You strum it and I'll hum it :)
ps I'm not normally up at this time - just suffering from a bit of insomnia :(
Comment is about John Coopey (poet profile)
Original item by John Coopey
Me again.
Glad you liked "The Last Rhyme" but immensely disappointed when I discovered that all those xxxxxxxxxxxxx's at the end weren't kisses.
Comment is about Isobel (poet profile)
Original item by Isobel
Hello Steve,
Glad you liked "The Last Rhyme". I have to give a little credit away though. It was a Jagger-Richards-Coopey composition. (We're over 200 years old between us).
Comment is about steve pottinger (poet profile)
Original item by steve pottinger
Cynthia,
All definitely true...the truest line is the last one.
Comment is about Thoughts Coupled (blog)
Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas
Wow, Anthony! That was brilliant. Your comment on my "The Last Rhyme" deserves a blog of its own. You should post it.
Comment is about Anthony Emmerson (poet profile)
Original item by Anthony Emmerson
...and another thing!
Nice to meet up again last Thurs.
If I get across again soon we might do a duet together? I have in mind my rip-off of "Ah Yes! I Remember It Well".
Comment is about Remembrance Observation (blog)
Original item by Isobel
Oops!
Forgot to pass on my thanks for your commenting on my Ape Shit poem (which, too, was quite sad).
Comment is about Remembrance Observation (blog)
Original item by Isobel
Enjoyed this Isobel (if enjoy is the right word). Powerful and pointed.
I think I have a few years on so so I recall the parades of yesteryear being about the old men (WW1 vets) and the young men (WW2).
It's sad that we don't have those old men anymore but sadder still that we keep replenishing the parades with young men.
Comment is about Remembrance Observation (blog)
Original item by Isobel
Hello Anthony,
Thanks for your thoughts on "Ape Shit". I'm not an animal liberationist myself but I couldn't help feeling there was something so fundamentally wrong with keeping apes (and other animals for that matter) captive.
Comment is about Anthony Emmerson (poet profile)
Original item by Anthony Emmerson
Glad you both liked it, Margaret and John. I'm not as widely-read on railway poetry as you might imagine, John. All the poems I've used here - apart from my own one, of course - came from a little volume called Railway Rhymes, ed. Peter Ashley. The Pershore one you mention is in there, too.
Comment is about Railways cento (blog)
Original item by Greg Freeman
John,
At last! A song that even a deaf old codger like me knows!
Oh,`to have your ham and eggs in Carolina!`
Comment is about The Power of Words (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
Glad you appreciated my sad poem. It's strange how the most heartfelt can take the least time to get down in print. A similar occasion was when I was down in South Devon one gloomy November afternoon walking beside the River Dart - and found myself watching and listening to a solitary robin in a threadbare tree. By the time I was home (in my holiday caravan) I had the poem written in my head - see "The Galmpton Robin". Like you, I love comic verse and having read your POEM above, I can tell Mike was a damn Yankee who any girl with sense would like to tell to Foxtrot Oscar without needing an X-ray, with a cry of "Who's a Papa?" that would Echo for miles.
Cheers...:-)
Comment is about Dave Carr (poet profile)
Original item by Dave Carr
tony sheridan
Mon 12th Nov 2012 20:11
Ten out of Ten! Take care, Tony.
Comment is about LIFE'S PUZZLE (blog)
Original item by bernadette herbertson
tony sheridan
Mon 12th Nov 2012 20:07
Nice one. Take care, Tony.
Comment is about SLEEP.....A BABY'S CONTENTMENT (blog)
Original item by bernadette herbertson
tony sheridan
Mon 12th Nov 2012 20:01
I think that depression can bring out good works of art. Painters, poets, musicians.... History shows this. I can relate to your poem. Take care, Tony.
Comment is about Someday soon..who knows..maybe. (blog)
Original item by bernadette herbertson
tony sheridan
Mon 12th Nov 2012 19:49
The Hare and the tortoise! Love this. Take care, Tony.
Comment is about The old mans fable (blog)
Original item by bernadette herbertson
thank you Dave. Yep - life is complicated!
Comment is about Dave Bradley (poet profile)
Original item by Dave Bradley
Thanks for the link Julian. I realy enjoyed these renditions. Good to hear how the *professionals" deliver the words. Burton reading Dylan Thomas - now that's perfection.
Comment is about Think only this of them: War Poetry on video for today (article)
Original item by Julian Jordon
John F Keane
Wed 14th Nov 2012 18:25
Hello folks, I need a few things:
Nigel, can you post a link to the council page where Peter said we could register our opinions?
Can everyone apart from Dorinda, Joanne and Linda mail me electronic copies of their poems protesting the Gallery closure?
Mail them to me (j_f_keane@talktalk.net) or just post them on here.
Comment is about Stockport WoL (group profile)
Original item by Stockport WoL