...hello Laura...wasn't sure how this would be received...seems it's ok...thanks..chris.
Comment is about Laura Taylor (poet profile)
Original item by Laura Taylor
...hello Larisa..very encouraging comment..thank you...cheers..chris.
Comment is about Larisa Rzhepishevska (poet profile)
Original item by Larisa Rzhepishevska
<Deleted User> (9554)
Sat 13th Aug 2011 21:01
<Deleted User> (6895)
Sat 13th Aug 2011 20:20
I call it-
the broken part
of the human pscyche.
an indelible stain on-us all!
respect.
Stef.x
Comment is about Anger (blog)
Original item by Shirley Smothers
Would you REALLY come to Aggie? That would be great - I would be honoured!x
Comment is about Anthony Emmerson (poet profile)
Original item by Anthony Emmerson
<Deleted User> (9554)
Sat 13th Aug 2011 18:45
Definitely not me. Must be some other trucker.x
Comment is about Ann Foxglove (poet profile)
Original item by Ann Foxglove
<Deleted User> (9554)
Sat 13th Aug 2011 18:33
Oh Anne! You've obviously missed my entry; which was posted on the glorious 12th.
What-a mistake-a to make-a.
I didn't know I was so transparent.x
Comment is about Ann Foxglove (poet profile)
Original item by Ann Foxglove
Hi Frances,
What an interesting article! I'm not sure where this perceived fear of poetry might stem from; perhaps a dearth of poetry in schools, or the fear of seeming ignorant and out of our depth when confronted by that which we struggle to understand. Whatever the reason I don't think poets and poetry do theirselves any favours.
For far too long poetry has languished either between the dusty pages of books, or, perhaps even worse, in the slam/open mic venues frequented by the wannabe literati - with little access or welcome to the general public. In today's world of digital media and special effects this, to me, seems a wasted opportunity for an art form, which, perhaps more than any other, has the potential to move and engage an audience.
Although it may not be to everyone's taste I would love to see poetry professionally produced and presented (totally unintentional alliteration) for mainstream consumption. Bearing in mind what "Four Weddings and a Funeral" did for Auden's "Funeral Blues" the future direction seems obvious.
Poetry needs to be dragged (albeit kicking and screaming) into the 21st century, via film, big-stage performances, internet virals etc.
It's not the fault of either poetry or poets that poetry has limited popularity, rather the lack of imagination and ambition. Collaborations between poets, film makers, musicians and talented producers could be a revelation. All it needs is that extra spark of creative thinking . . . oh, and the small matter of substantial financial backing . . .
Maybe there's a need for a "Free Poetry From The Page" movement!
Loved your sample poem by the way.
Regards,
A.E.
Comment is about The beat of our hearts: how to combat poetry phobia (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
emotions i know far too well lol well done :-)
Comment is about Anger (blog)
Original item by Shirley Smothers
Hi Shirley - thanks for commenting on 'When We Share' much appreciated. :)
Comment is about Shirley Smothers (poet profile)
Original item by Shirley Smothers
Hi Kath. I have posted the haiku "Anger" that I told you about on Tuesday. My daughter Samantha recorded the audio version for me. Although she says it's a little dark for her taste.
Comment is about Kath Hewitt (poet profile)
Original item by Kath Hewitt
Great poem.
Inspirational without being preachy.
Makes me want to be a better person.
Shirley
Comment is about When We Share (blog)
Original item by Dave Dunn
Deborah Jordan Bailey
Sat 13th Aug 2011 16:35
ohh bugger...missed this..it looked good too
Comment is about Heights of lyricism 300ft underground (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Deborah Jordan Bailey
Sat 13th Aug 2011 16:34
i be there for the B walk,then the pub bit.
I'd offer to hold the map and point but it might not necessarily be in the right direction..I need to practice this route.. but Isobel,we could plan a nightime walk/pub crawl like you describe, with minimal walking/staggering between pubs..poetry optional.
Comment is about Join fellow poets for a walk in Ted Hughes' stamping ground (article)
Original item by Julian Jordon
..thanks Ann..have done that now...I've not entered competitions..it's all sitting around in notebooks for the last *&!+! years..used to read it at the original WOL in the Sweet Green Tavern,Bolton..cheers..chris.
Comment is about Ann Foxglove (poet profile)
Original item by Ann Foxglove
Sat 13th Aug 2011 15:15
I like your love poems. 'Impossibility' is great stuff.
Comment is about Lynn Dye (poet profile)
Original item by Lynn Dye
Hi Ann,
Hope it goes well. I did a stint with a friend on BBC Radio Devon a while back - it was fun, but very "lightweight" as the presenter wanted limericks on celebs etc. If you do manage to get an event up and running I'll do my best to make it, it would be good to meet up and chew the fat!
Regards,
A.E.
Comment is about Ann Foxglove on the radio (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Sat 13th Aug 2011 15:11
Sat 13th Aug 2011 15:10
Hi Isobel,
Hope you enjoyed your hols.
I think everyone has their own view on this subject, probably all equally as valid. It's a perfect storm of events and their consequences - or non-consequences.
The bankers ripped off society for trillions, were bailed out by the same society and perhaps, most importantly, were seen to largely get away with it. To a lesser extent, MPs fiddled for years, and are probably still fiddling through corporate lobbying by global industries. The press and the police have been seen to have had an extremely unhealthy relationship, feeding off each other.
I guess if you are a member of the so-calloed "disaffected youth" you look at this and think "they've gotten away with it, why shouldn't I?"
In Lincoln's Gettysburg address he commends "government of the people, by the people, for the people." We are a long way from that these days. For me this is the root of the problem and applies equally to all mainstream political persuasions.
Bring back hanging - abolish y-fronts! :)
Regards,
A.E.
Comment is about The Haves and The Have Nots (blog)
Original item by Isobel
Thank you Andy. I realise that my beliefs are unpopular on here - unfashionable even. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that I am agreeing with the greater british public rather than looking for less obvious underlying reasons.
Sometimes - just because the baying masses are saying it - doesn't make what they are saying wrong ;-) x
Comment is about The Haves and The Have Nots (blog)
Original item by Isobel
Thanks for your comment Andy - it's appreciated. I seem to be in an overwhelming minority in my beliefs LOL - yet to me the reasons are so blindingly obvious! May see you at Butterflies next month. xx
Comment is about Andy N (poet profile)
Original item by Andy N
lot of good stuff here, folks.. good to see poetry that makes you all discuss things through as great as this.. i've got a nice ranting one i must put up which i finished the other day too about cuts.. keep it going folks! A
Comment is about Cause and Effect (blog)
Original item by Laura Taylor
I'd agree with you re advertising Ray - it has to account for a lot of the trouble, together with the kind of computer games children now play which encourage antisocial, anti establishment behaviour.
I preferred a quick slap to being marooned in a bedroom for hours. Bedrooms had no toys in them and I liked to play out. My niece uses a 'naughty step' but I find the time it takes to enforce such discipline and the whinging and whining you have to endure quite irritating. I only ever had a very rare slap cos by a certain age I recognised authority and didn't challenge it. Had that slap, ever turned into a beating, I would no doubt be in the anti slapping camp.
What I am trying to say is that children need boundaries as much as they need love and food. Without them, they are flailing around and insecure. Watch any of these super nanny programmes and you can see it. How can we exert any influence over what our kids do if they have no respect for us? Respcect comes from being in control and calling the shots until they are old enough to make the right decisions for themselves.
Comment is about The Haves and The Have Nots (blog)
Original item by Isobel
lot going on here, dave.. for some reason as i got into the piece, i actually thought it was going to be a comedy piece, but it went the other way which i liked.. top one, bud. hope you are good, see you soon - andy n
Comment is about Camped (blog)
Original item by Dave Bradley
great stuff, kealan. last line is pitch perfect here.. A
Comment is about Kill The System (blog)
Original item by Kealan Coady
like the change in beat on the last stanza here, lisa.. perhaps it is a stanza too long getting there but i enjoyed it x
Comment is about Pink Tulips (blog)
Original item by Lisa Milligan
excellent, dave.. made me think of my pet dog that one and i certainly do believe in ghosts
Comment is about Sparky (blog)
Original item by Dave Carr
nice stuff, isobel. i thought it was from the heart this piece as i went along.. lot of good bits and lines here, but i particularly liked the ending.. well done.. hope to see you soon on the circuit (resting at the moment until october) xx
Comment is about The Haves and The Have Nots (blog)
Original item by Isobel
interesting last line, here kath which threw me actually on first read as i originally thought this was out of place, but on second reading, it starts to expand more and more..
top one, my dear... keep em coming.. (are you submitting any for magazines etc?) - i have one i will be blogging myself soon, andy n x
Comment is about In a land of broken dreams (blog)
Original item by Kath Hewitt
Well maybe I thought I'll give up on men and try some dumb beasts instead - er, hang on a tick . . . . . . .
Comment is about fat seal (blog)
Original item by Ann Foxglove
How exciting for you!
If I am able to - I will tune in : )
Comment is about Ann Foxglove on the radio (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Lynn - Didn't your mothere ever tell you? You shouldn't have cast out your clout so early
Comment is about Summer Seasons (blog)
Original item by Lynn Dye
Now for a Freudian interpretation.....
Comment is about fat seal (blog)
Original item by Ann Foxglove
Excelleny stuff, Dave. And good to see some form stuff.
To follow Ann. A mate of mine's lad's mate's mate (honest) videoed himself looting and posted it on Facebook. Dumb or what?
It gets better - he was looting Poundland!
He should be dead proud to show his mates his set of crayons and birdfeeder.
Comment is about Reading, Rioting and (A)rithmetic - a villanelle (blog)
Original item by Dave Carr
Thanks for your thoughts on "The Scourge of God". Glad you enjoyed it.
I don't fancy the burial party's end, but the river-bed thing I fancy. Or maybe Viking style - pushed out into the River Aire on a raft, archer with a fire-arrow, then KABOOSH.
Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)
Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas
Yes, there's always been haves and have-nots but 50-60 years of consumerism, a society that relies on people buying things they don't need and 24/7 advertising reinforcing the multiplication of wants - this is a new phenomenon and is taking its toll, I think.
Discipline doesn't have to be instilled by smacking, though an occasional slap wouldn't harm, I agree, no more than would the occasional fag. But what about those who don't stop at an occasional slap? There are plenty of them and for their sakes and their children's sakes I can easily side with the anti-smacking lobby.
I think you want "spin of a coin" not spin on a coin.
Comment is about The Haves and The Have Nots (blog)
Original item by Isobel
Thank you Lynn and Francine - I appreciate your comments.
Francine, you are a great believer in the power of love. Nowhere is love more needed than in the home - elsewhere I find it is always suspect, shared, questionable. The love of parents, dished out with a little bit of discipline would put pay to so many of this world's problems.
I accept that metaphorical looting goes on with the Haves - but two wrongs don't make a right - if you see where I'm coming from. I don't expect any of those rioters sat about discussing the integrity of their political leaders before they started looting...
Comment is about The Haves and The Have Nots (blog)
Original item by Isobel
Well done, Isobel, we all have our opinions and yours are very well expressed. I see both sides of most arguments, so nothing new here! I enjoyed your poem. xx
Comment is about The Haves and The Have Nots (blog)
Original item by Isobel
I understand where you are coming from - to raise compassionate, respectful, responsible children should be everyone's aspiration. It is so much more than that though. It brings up the Nature versus Nurture issue too... One can do everything right and still get it wrong, and vice versa.
Comment is about The Haves and The Have Nots (blog)
Original item by Isobel
Jeez Laura, how can you say that? It is clear that we need to flog them all and hang them in public, why don't we? I'm sure that will work. Sure of it.
Einstein once said, (and I am repeating myself, I know)that to every complex human problem there is always a simple solution; and it's almost invariably wrong.
Alternatively, we could try to understand the factors at work in our society that have created the conditions in which people feel it's OK to behave like this. I mean, it's not as if our politicians, police, large companies, bankers behave in selfish, short-term, grab-what-you-can-whilst-you-can ways now, is it? So, were are their role models?
The directors of Southern Cross Nursing Home who made a multi-million pound killing by selling the 'care' homes and leasing them back, could not care less about their residents. A year or two later the company goes bust. do they have to repay their big fat profit made at the residents' expense? nope. Short-term profit is the game. Grab it now. Where are they on the courts' lists?
You have it bang on, Laura, as to the source. Maggie 'there's no such thing as society' Thatcher. A self-fulfilling comment.
We are run by a government of millionaires who, no matter how well-meaning they might consider themselves, have absolutely no idea how the rest of Britain lives.
The UK spring?
Comment is about Cause and Effect (blog)
Original item by Laura Taylor
I'm not wishing to resurrect any arguments here - I think we've all done the riots to death. I just felt like I wanted to say my piece in a blog, like everyone else. It's the first serious thing I've written in ages. Not great poetry but very heart felt :)
Peace to all. x
Comment is about The Haves and The Have Nots (blog)
Original item by Isobel
Really really interesting discussion. People may like to know that the Toxteth community in Liverpool, working with the police, has identified significant numbers of vehicles and occupants trying to come into the area to cause trouble. This is ordinary people getting active and caring about and protecting their community
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Toxteth-Against-The-Riots/139844202770437
Comment is about Cause and Effect (blog)
Original item by Laura Taylor
I've never felt haunted by anything or anyone, I sort of wish I had. My cat has never haunted me but last night I dreamed she re-appeared with two little kittens. Aaaah! They were just like her only littler.
Comment is about Sparky (blog)
Original item by Dave Carr
And what would you use to break down its doors?
Perchance a pen, for tis mightier than the sword...
Comment is about Sparky (blog)
Original item by Dave Carr
Wuff wuff - there's always one straggler - I bet if you were to riot, you'd be the only one attacking Waterstones... :))
Comment is about Sparky (blog)
Original item by Dave Carr
We can only present one poem per month to be on show continually in blogs. Once we blog another it drops behind the other one. You can access it by clicking on previous but it isn't as evident as it used to be in the past. The new system was devised to share out blog space equally and accommodate those who wanted to blog large numbers of poems without people complaining.
It isn't a problem for me cos I'm not that prolific nowadays. I would normally hold off blogging a second on the heels though.
Comment is about Reading, Rioting and (A)rithmetic - a villanelle (blog)
Original item by Dave Carr
Didn't mean to cover it up.
How does that work?
Comment is about Reading, Rioting and (A)rithmetic - a villanelle (blog)
Original item by Dave Carr
Tommy Carroll
Sat 13th Aug 2011 23:22
Isobel- much of the anger as displayed over the course of events was justified, not each and every action was 'simple theft'. One needs to make an effort to separate the many various strands of activity that occurred.
Comment is about An abstraction of events (blog)
Original item by Tommy Carroll