Hi, Isobel,
I enjoyed Santa with my children but looking back I would not do it again. It's such a massive lie we make our children swallow I am surprised an adult ever believes anything again. Yet the reality of giving and the legend of st Nicholas is not so bad.
Comment is about Bonding Over the Argos Catalogue (blog)
Original item by Isobel
This is a lovely sad poem. I very much enjoyed reading this
Comment is about White Widow (blog)
Original item by Marianne Daniels
Lovely poem M.C.
I must be in tune with you. I have 2 trees this year - one from school that I couldn't bear to see thrown out. It'll have to go at some point though...
Comment is about CHRISTMAS TREE (blog)
Original item by M.C. Newberry
I'll third it. What a superbly-condensed, simply sizzling summary of such an action-packed year. Well done to Greg, and to all who made the summary possible, with the obvious exception of the Bahraini government. Boo to them.
I wonder what 2012 (twenty-twelve, or two thousand and twelve?) will bring?
Comment is about Politics, protests and wheelbarrows: the WOL review of 2011 (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Great piece. This is one to tuck away and dig out on a dark day - it will surely help. When things are really bad many people cannot cope with deep meaning words and may appreciate something like this with its level optimism.
Comment is about BE GRATEFUL (blog)
Original item by M.C. Newberry
Despite wondering why a Christmas Tree should be thrown out in December I really like this.
Says a lot, connects with many and flows well.
Comment is about CHRISTMAS TREE (blog)
Original item by M.C. Newberry
Good luck with that project John. The shitty cards some people get dealt with in life, take some coping with. I think it's a great charity, with people who have benefited often going on to help others themselves. It's wonderful to see poetry being used in such a positive way. x
Comment is about The Samaritans charity's YouTube channel links to my Video poem 'So Sad WAS I' (blog)
Lovely video, poem and message John. My only criticism would be the face that mans the Samaritan line in the video. It is young, beautiful and probably not very representative of reality. I suppose it's not that different to many other adverts in that respect so perhaps it reflects what the unthinking public want to see.
Comment is about The Samaritans charity's YouTube channel links to my Video poem 'So Sad WAS I' (blog)
Enjoyed this Andy - a wonderful macabre flight of fancy.
PS Spelling of grenades and bundled?
Comment is about 12 days after Christmas (blog)
Original item by Andy N
Well written, John. The continual anxiety of the Cold War is now a distant memory but was very very real at the time. We don't seem bothered now, but while Israel, North Korea and Pakistan have nuclear weapons and Iran and terrorists are trying to get them, we should be.
Comment is about 1962 (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
Hi Richard. I liked this a lot. So vivid and well observed. Some stand-out lines including
Glistening golden glints, all glorious glimmer,
Gave the rusting rails a glimpse of glamour.
I hung round Brighton a bit myself in my teens, with a cousin, and it all came flooding back. Thank you!
Comment is about New Year’s Day on Brighton Pier (blog)
Original item by C Richard Miles
Really enjoyed this Rach, rememeber the magic of finding the North Star in my telescope when I was a lad, then learning more about others!
Like the reflection about this time of the year (great first few lines about that) and the thoughts about your travels, Bolton prob not where you expected but hope it's okay, glad you're here - I've always loved travel but always end up back here!
Anyway Rach, great poem keep up the good work in 2012 Jeff X
Comment is about north star (blog)
cheers Mike- I am in deep self-consultation :o)
Comment is about Noetic-fret! (poet profile)
Original item by Noetic-fret!
ste i had those sticky stars. i got fed up of sticking and unsticking them everytime i moved.once i had a skylight in the bathroom and used to have hippy baths full of chamomile tea bags and watch the sky at night. 2 moon diameters accross from the moon was where venus was at that time. i couldnt really see it but did not have super powered telescope today i cannot be arsed with hippy tea bags or sticky stars.
maybe i should get some more and try again. they are uv and pretty cool really.there is no escape from small town life. big cities are just a collection of smaller towns with a centre in the middle.
mike thanks for comments. yes everything is shit but doesnt have to be. i would suggest sticky stars ;)
new year zeal all round methinks xx
Comment is about north star (blog)
<Deleted User> (6895)
Fri 30th Dec 2011 23:42
Hi Lynn
glad you enjoyed your shopping trip.
Catch you tomorrow.
Lotsa Love
Patricia and Stef.xxx
Comment is about Lynn Dye (poet profile)
Original item by Lynn Dye
Enjoyed this, Roy, lovely poem.
Comment is about Awake But Still Dreaming (blog)
Hi, you're right in many ways. Christmas has been lost to a great degree, it's meaning that is. And yes, I understand the last few lines about the mediocrity of present day living. As I say, we have been conditioned to accept this and yet we are all aware that in many ways it's wrong. Life should be a celebration, but, when we look back we see history tarnished with outrage upon outrage. And now we seem to rot within conceit. Conditioned is what we have become, and it's sour, utterly sour when we had the potential to do so much more if we just didn't bicker amongst ourselves.
Great poem, all the best for 2012. I hope you find the much needed zeal we all need for next year, and your poems reflect it.
Best wishes
mike
x
Comment is about north star (blog)
Only just seen this one, Gemma, and love it! Congratulations. x
Comment is about Ain’t Never Been So Precious (blog)
Original item by Gemma Lees
Hi Tommy, i have been there in the mirror staring at the reflection with all its scars and tales, and the world has stared back, often in contempt. I myself wouldn't know how to end such a poem. Here, in this one, they'd lost their chance is rather cryptic, and cut shorts what i feel you could have elaborated on. It starts off well, but in not knowing the chance, I find it cut to the quick and leaves me wanting an explanation. As good as it is, i find it a little frustrating, and wish to know, who lost their chance, and chance at what?
Hey, been a while since I last commented on your work, glad you're still here. Have a fantastic 2012.
Best wishes
mike
x
Comment is about The World and Mirror (blog)
Original item by Tommy Carroll
Hi Marianne, yet another fantastic poem. From what i read though, i have concerns about the poem, for if this is a reflection of you, then you must be suffering quietly inside. I just hope that your mood is not so low over this christmas period. Nevertheless a fantastic poem. I just hope you're alright?
Stay well and keep posting.
xxx
Comment is about White Widow (blog)
Original item by Marianne Daniels
So very true and beautifully expressed... Words of wisdom!
Comment is about True Love Will Still Win (blog)
Original item by Dave Dunn
Dark, yet feeling, with lots of great imagery...
Some of my fave lines:
'I have been lost,
tempered by a wind as wide
as the colours of a solar eclipse'
'Aloft, fragile,
a salmon sky designs
my place with romance'
'the sounds of my neediness
like a dagger,
the stretch of my repenting wrists,
a path uncommon to a staying love'
Comment is about White Widow (blog)
Original item by Marianne Daniels
thanks for the comment on my poem, Isobel - haven't thought of what you mentioned so will get it amended.
Comment is about Isobel (poet profile)
Original item by Isobel
thanks for your comment over my poem, Marianne - glad you liked it..
Comment is about Marianne Daniels (poet profile)
Original item by Marianne Daniels
thanks for the comment over my poem, Jeff.. am grateful of your comments
Comment is about Jeffarama! (poet profile)
Original item by Jeffarama!
thanks for the comments, folks.. means a lot this help and i will take on board your kind comments.
Comment is about Coastlines and laughter (blog)
Original item by Gray Nicholls
Nice work need to change was for were as Isobel says if plural sketches, as starts uncomfortably, otherwise enjoyed reading GN.
Comment is about Coastlines and laughter (blog)
Original item by Gray Nicholls
Hello Look forward to reading some of your work.
Comment is about Katherine Shirley (poet profile)
Original item by Katherine Shirley
<Deleted User> (9966)
Fri 30th Dec 2011 18:03
Sound.And well read. Thanks for sharing!
Comment is about Every Grain of Sand (blog)
Original item by Noetic-fret!
Katherine,
I await future postings. Welcome to this online community.
J. Otis
Comment is about Katherine Shirley (poet profile)
Original item by Katherine Shirley
Interestingly thought out mother and child poem.
and I do like "we’ll tiptoe round the spectrum of her dreams"
Comment is about Bonding Over the Argos Catalogue (blog)
Original item by Isobel
Well done you capture the sense that the natural order of things was teetering on the brink of imploding, or should I say exploding. Lets hope the computer wargame generation are reminded this 50th anniv. The Jesuits took delight in telling us we were about to die and that our parents didn't want us back home. I did experience the domestic scene you tell of, but that was at the time of Suez.
Comment is about 1962 (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
Very much enjoyed reading/listening to these. However was Mr McGough really trying to write in Christmas card verse suitable for the subject, with a cliche on every line? Simon Armitage's contribution was interesting but his monotonous monotone rendition made it hard to pay attention. I found the subject matter of most, not all, too introspective for my liking.
Only my opinion - feel free to tear me to shreds.
Comment is about Click on this? WOL's links compendium (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
This is beautiful and incredibly moving. I love 'an acoustic version of autumn' - brilliant description.
Comment is about Coastlines and laughter (blog)
Original item by Gray Nicholls
This is lovely - especially that last verse - very subtle, very sad.
I'd change sketch to singular in the first verse or was to were in the second line. For me the mismatch creates an ugly bump right at the start of a lovely poem. That's just my opinion though.
Comment is about Coastlines and laughter (blog)
Original item by Gray Nicholls
We had to prey in school for something I was completely ignorant about- I was (at the time) told that 'I came from Cuba' as a resolution to 'where did I come from Dad?' :o)
Comment is about 1962 (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
Thanks for your comments on the 2011 review, Isobel.It was fun to do. Hope you had a good Christmas? I'm still hatching a plan for a week up north one day that would take in a night at the Tudor! Greg
Comment is about Isobel (poet profile)
Original item by Isobel
What I remember, John, is the BBC teatime news opening with the map of Cuba for about eight days on the trot. I hadn't taken any interest in the news before that. Later you found out that it was around that time that Bob Dylan wrote A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall and Masters of War. The atmosphere you capture must have been played out in so many homes; when suddenly your own living room no longer felt safe.
Comment is about 1962 (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
I'll second that. What a great summary of an action packed year - and an enjoyable read.
Comment is about Politics, protests and wheelbarrows: the WOL review of 2011 (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Finely balanced morality piece between taking personal responsibility and the influence of the "superpowers". It brought to mind the ghost of Kipling.
Comment is about RESOLUTIONS (blog)
Original item by Ian Gant
A positive message to carry through to 2012 Dave. Great stuff. win x
Comment is about As 2012 Approaches (blog)
Original item by Dave Dunn
Catching up.
Glad to hear you were there back in the seventies. (It took me ages to work out what those ladies that used to drop in at Chauffeurs did for a living)
Did my first poem (9 minutes!!) at O`Connors to warm applause..then completely cocked up the next three times I went.
Comment is about Tommy Carroll (poet profile)
Original item by Tommy Carroll
Lovely bit of nostalgia John. It's funny when you look back on events through an adult's eyes.
We used to have a long clothes horse thing that hung from the ceiling. I can remember seeing a toy quilt cover for a second hand pram airing up there for weeks before Father Christmas delivered it...
I wish I could recapture the smells I remember - perhaps it has something to do with central heating but Christmas just doesn't smell the same anymore. I think we all have too much also. We used to get a tin of condensed milk instead of chocolates and would make it last for ever. Happy days eh?
Comment is about Bells (blog)
Finish the other thing cos I'd like to read it but let this stand for the competition too! Up the revolution - I'm a great fan of poetry with me, myself and I in it! In fact I wanted to write an entry called Me, Myself and I but it just wouldn't come... Anthony knows I'm a trouble maker - he's probably expecting a bit of dissidence ;)
Comment is about BETTY IN A WINDY SUNSET (blog)
Isobel thanks...you`re right!
(Shit! now I`ll have to try and finish the other bloody thing!)
But fair`s fair...thanks again.
Comment is about BETTY IN A WINDY SUNSET (blog)
ah well, my mum likes this one :)
Comment is about north star (blog)
If some lines are trifles for the appetite, then these are meat and gravy! Well done sir!
The care and thought are there in abundance - and it shows.
Food for thought for any year.
Comment is about RESOLUTIONS (blog)
Original item by Ian Gant
Thanks for the comments, folks.
Comment is about Roll-Up (blog)
bit late to post this I know,but still technically the Christmas season,so hey-ho!
Comment is about Bells (blog)
jane wilcock
Sat 31st Dec 2011 16:44
I was chosen at school to go on "Picture Box" a school TV show a few years after this and asked about my dreams on air. When I stated it was nuclear anihilation I was quickly passed over and my mum after school asked me if I was depressed so some message must have got to her. I said no, just realistic: children are like sponges, they see and hear all... and find adult explanations unsatisfactory
Comment is about 1962 (blog)
Original item by John Coopey