Hi Cate Thanks for your kind comments about the poem. Glad you like it.

Comment is about Cate (poet profile)

Original item by Cate

Ann, thanks for your kind remarks on Analgesic. I'm not a smoker myself for 20 years. I do feel, though, that the focus on smoking has gone over the top. I think it's a form of displacement; we'd do far better to restrict the use of the motor car.Wine is the most wonderful thing in the world. Apart from football.

Comment is about Ann Foxglove (poet profile)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

I would say this Haiku is bob on Isobel!!
Cate xx

Comment is about Bobbing Haiku (blog)

Original item by Isobel

John Darwin was there-doing a fabulous set too! But not sure what happened to the pic...

Comment is about Guest poet, Louise Fazackerley, at the Secret Writers Club Launch, Wigan April 2010 (photo)

Hi Kealan! Thanks for your comment on Scream, glad you appreciated it! I just hope Alan Moore doesn't sue me! :-)

Comment is about Kealan Coady (poet profile)

Original item by Kealan Coady

Of course you can Marianne! xx

Comment is about Marianne Daniels (poet profile)

Original item by Marianne Daniels

I love this! Can I borrow this when I run around cemeteries at midnight in midsummer pretending to be Kate Bush??!
"An angels wroth the deaths head moth" is such a joy to say.

Comment is about behind a dark moon (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

I like this too.

Comment is about Going home (blog)

I can relate to this...powerful stuff.

Comment is about Beneath the mask. (blog)

I am quite a fan of your work.
This, to me, says so much of loss and abandonement,and nostalgia for a time that you can never have again, so perfectly in so very few words.
Excellent.

Comment is about Going home (blog)

i really understand this poem, you dont need an army for a war it can all take place within one persons mind. the ending is perfect, conveying the constant circle of dissapointment that is life. You didnt try any complex metaphors which worked well because what you are saying here is profound enough. good work

Comment is about Scream (blog)

Original item by Steven Kenny

Yes - I am lucky that I don't put weight on easily, despite eating everything that's bad for me. I do have a definite marsh mallow bottom though - thankfully the pics on here never show that!
Re the male body - you and me both on that score! LOL

Comment is about Ann Foxglove (poet profile)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

you wouldnt catch me in a wedding dress...i just wrote a little scenario about a bride spilling red wine on her dress on someone elses comments....theyre interesting images/symbols those dresses eh?..infused with so much meaning...

Comment is about Crying In Your Wedding Dress (blog)

Original item by Tom

Thanks for your kind and funny comments on Marshmallow. You always look very slender in your pics on here. As to writing about the male physique, I can't remember what one looks like! If you see what I mean!

Comment is about Isobel (poet profile)

Original item by Isobel

Isobel you always look very slender in your pics on here. As to writing about the male physique, I can't remember what one looks like! If you see what I mean! Better keep eating salad though or the follow up will be called Blancmange!!! Heheheheh!

Comment is about marshmallow (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Yes, and disrespect them and autisitic spectrum is brill too. I don't like the first verse as much as the rest. You seem to get more of a swing going by the second verse. Also I guess I am pretty much against smoking (smacked wrist for me then - esp as I drink wine on occasion!)

Comment is about Analgesia (blog)

The ending left me snickering like a schoolboy! Great celebration of the female figure, curvy women of stick thin any day!

Comment is about marshmallow (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

I really enjoyed reading this, your rhymes are fantastic, and some of the words you use are brilliant. Neurosis and notice! Brilliant

Comment is about Analgesia (blog)

Nice descriptions, has an "all at once" feel, which is presumably your intent."worm casted grassland"-what's that then?bottled toothache is good and the ending is fine...

Comment is about The Park Bench 'swing'. (blog)

Original item by sian howell

Hi Ann. Thanks for the advice. I managed to sort the format out. on that latest blog.Cheers. Your ever grateful nephew. Ken.x

Comment is about Ann Foxglove (poet profile)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Hi Max - chapbooks - at the risk of boring you stiff with my opinions, I'll give it a shot anyway & hope you dont take offence. Excepting folks like eg JK Rowling, the average writer makes an annual income of £8K pa whereas the average pay for a Teacher of creative writing is around £40K pa - depressing yes? Poets BTW earn way way below that of the average writer. If you want some advice ?? here it is. My business turnover is ~ £1 million (which these days is not a lot) but we are just opening a new factory as well in the US & expanding out into Europe. We've been going 22 yrs. We work in an extremely small niche market which, to me at any rate, is the way to go these days. You dont want an enterprise where you have a lot of competition. I dont know what your other interests & strengths are, but I would think hard about what you are passionate or at least very knowledgeable about & do that. A guy who worked for me left to make handmade plastic chesspieces - er, no - the chinese can do that for 100th of the price. If you were talented & maybe doing them in solid gold... maybe a different matter. Another thing is that if you watch dragons den everyone thinks you need a bank/investor loan of £100K which is bollocks - I started off with nothing & built very slowly. The hard part is having the idea - it does not need to be a new invention, but you do need to specialize - and be aware that working for yourself is very hard work indeed, but can also pay way better than working for anyone else. for example - my brother in law prints & sells unique/arty Tshirts on the net from london & makes about £30K - not great but easy to do & not too shabby money-wise. I'm just trying to reiterate that publishing poetry is not the route to riches - unless you can maybe think of a unique way of doing it?? I hope I've not bored you too much. all the best. B

Comment is about Max Wallis (poet profile)

Original item by Max Wallis

Hi Ann. I didn't intend it to be in one great lump, just the way it turned out after pasting.Anyway it's nice to find I have a surviving relative.Great Aunts are very thin on the ground at my age. Ken.X

Comment is about Ann Foxglove (poet profile)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

a chapbook is a cheap small book (paperback generally upto ~ A5). Max - IMHO - a very noble ambition as everyone wants to be in print, but there are hundreds of other chapbook printers & none of them makes any money (except maybe the con-artist vanity publishers). I dont want to discourage you from your plan, but, joking aside, you'll make more money flipping burgers at McDonalds. Just my 2 cents. Sincerely - all the best.B

Comment is about Chapbook (blog)

Original item by Max Wallis

Hello Alison, I've kept coming back to this and keep waiting for some other feedback to see if they agree with my thoughts. No luck so here goes.
I found occasional rhyming a bit hard to get my teeth around (sure more, shade glade etc) when other lines didn't. Your feelings of lightheadedness balance nicely with the lofty subject matter too.It's clever work. I imagine the photo is preciously relevant but I think it takes away from the writing. Keep it going Alison.

Comment is about Moral High Ground (blog)

Original item by Alison Smiles

Hello Sian, so good to see you back and with yet another strong piece. This provoked in me a more performance feel to it. Are you going to do it?
Alliterations are effective, and your angst about your observations is very apparent. Graham

Comment is about The Park Bench 'swing'. (blog)

Original item by sian howell

ay lass, tha's reet - if we all had a good gawp every now an then t'world'd be a much better place. just off fer me tripe & whippets...

Comment is about Ann Foxglove (poet profile)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

I'm glad you cleared that one up Ann, LOL. Very sensuous, as Francine says. I love any celebration of the proper feminine curvy form - about time men tried to see this perspective. Let's banish all these anorexic stick creatures.What a super analogy marsh mallow makes - you can just imagine falling into it.
Now write me one about the male form please - and do make it snappy! xx

Comment is about marshmallow (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Thanks for commenting Greg. The world has so many beautiful and/or characterful bridges. In just Britain, Clifton, Erskine, Severn, Ironbridge, Menai, Forth, Humber, Gateshead,Ribblehead, Tyne etc. plus practically any canal bridge and most small rural bridges. And that's just the UK. But the poem is about more than just stone/bricks. I really liked your St Leonards Church.

Comment is about Greg Freeman (poet profile)

Original item by Greg Freeman

dedicated catholic? im certainly not, i was comparing modern israeli imerialism to the foreign policy of the roman empire during jesus' time.

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Really beautiful Marianne. "Name me in your heart" such a great line. Is it a plea, an instruction, an order? I wonder!

Comment is about The Birthday Comb (blog)

Original item by Marianne Daniels

oh my marianne...sharp intakes of breath later..this is perfect,

He sweeps her feet and tastes the walk, and shirks the woe wide, and with a voice like crystals drowning, he beguiles:
"Your heart is my heart."

and after all that talk of greying rivers..

only women write the true romances...

Comment is about The Birthday Comb (blog)

Original item by Marianne Daniels

I'd love to hear this performed!

Comment is about Just people (blog)

Original item by Daniel Hooks

Catch on quick don't I. Ken E.D.

Comment is about Ann Foxglove (poet profile)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Interesting ideas in your poem about bridges, Dave. I like bridges; take lots of photographs of them. Which is your favourite bridge?

Comment is about Dave Bradley (poet profile)

Original item by Dave Bradley

Hi Ann - "Amongst Equals & For Now" - many thanks for your kind comments. The latter could indeed be a cat looking at a king - I never thought of that - but it was just me, on a first date, gawping. B

Comment is about Ann Foxglove (poet profile)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

I think your poem is really good. I esp like the last verse. To be able to write about this sort of subject in such a no-nonsense straight way makes it all the more touching. Hope your better health continues and hope to see more of your stuff on WOL.

Comment is about John E Marks (poet profile)

Original item by John E Marks

Dunderhead that I am, I don't really know what a chap book is. Enlightenment sought? x

Comment is about Chapbook (blog)

Original item by Max Wallis

I love loved the heart strings being like puppet strings, it's minging but in a good way, I wanted more of his organs to be used by her, this poem has given me loads of ideas, cheers Kenny!

Comment is about The Marionette (blog)

Original item by Steven Kenny

ive written a jesus poem...i was inspired...it sort of about the battles between christianity and islam...i wont be putting it on here tho cos im not offering myself for crucifixion by anybody's political arguements.
youll have to come round and read it over a brew. we could re write jesus christ superstar on the guitar and ill get some batteries for my recording device this time x

Comment is about Modern Saviour (blog)

Original item by Kealan Coady

Hi Marianne. an appendix of thanks. Loved th whole thing. Win x

Comment is about Blowback (blog)

Original item by Marianne Daniels

dance is my life ann...its a tragedy that i dont get to perform every single day...it should be written in to the national curriculem of our lives...3 hours off in the afternoon for the style of your choice. since i gave up my dance career I have been mainly enjoying the argentinian tango...you know of it?

oh and i love Barry White...but thats for another kind of dance altogether ;)

Comment is about dance round the kitchen it's SUNDAY!!! (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

dancing is good: great exercise, good for the old mental bits. But that music puts me off Ann! I am more your paso doble, or a bit of celidh dancing: get that willow stripped!
yours aye.

Comment is about dance round the kitchen it's SUNDAY!!! (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

I do not dance well... or even at all really :-(

Comment is about dance round the kitchen it's SUNDAY!!! (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Photos by Gemma Lees

Comment is about Old Boars Head, Middleton April 2010 (photo)

Photographs by Keith Ainsworth

Comment is about Cassius at the Egg Café, Liverpool April 2010 (photo)

Thanx for your comment on 'Playing Polo'. It started as rant against 'what have you got' kind of thing. Combined with my secret dream that I am really a prince who was deposited with a poor family to protect me from assassins and that one day I will be offered the kingship of Norfolk, or some such, and have flunkies, groupies and be in the Beatles and so on...
;)

Comment is about Greg Freeman (poet profile)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Yes. although I live in Grimsby, I regularly visit Reading where my mother still lives. They have a Poets' Cafe every third Friday of the month and quite an established community of good poets. I tend to make my visits coincide with it. I'll see if I can dig something ecclesiastical out for a blog!

Comment is about Greg Freeman (poet profile)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Hi Liz an official hello andwelcom from the admin team. Hope you enjoy exploring our site. Winston

Comment is about Liz Millar (poet profile)

Original item by Liz Millar

Hi Steve, welcome to WOL. Hope you enjoy thesite and all its foibles! winston (Admin):-)

Comment is about Steve Tasane (poet profile)

Original item by Steve Tasane

Hi Stephen... Good to see you on here. we have met at Hebdenandat the Beehive poets (I should get down there again soon) Good to see you writewhilst cycling, me too! if you post a poem as a blog entry people ar mor likely to come accross them and comment. win

Comment is about Stephen Pass (poet profile)

Original item by Stephen Pass