It's the dog owners who, when you look at their pet with distaste, say: "He's only playing/being friendly" when it's trying to nibble at your ankle that get me. I suppose most people are either dog people or cat people. I saw the hoodies on the telly in that park in Liverpool last night. But maybe you're right, Ann: we should try harder to see it from the dog's point of view!

Comment is about dogbo (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Wow! Wow! I'm blown away! Your dad was a great man - we are not worthy etc...Feel proud to blow his trumpet, he obviously worked with some of the best!!!

Comment is about Ann Foxglove (poet profile)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Michael Bentine - yes, I remember 'It's a square world' it was wonderful - I was thinking about it when I wrote the 'Flea circus'

Comment is about Ann Foxglove (poet profile)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Pam Ayres? I knew I reminded myself of somebody!

Comment is about dogbo (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Thanks for your comments on the funfair series Cynthia. I'm glad you enjoyed the flea circus. As you know, this is supposed to be a light series but I'm trying to mix it up a bit to keep it fresh.
Your support has been invaluable, thanks again.

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Welocome to WOL, Mr Thueuninck. I like the presentation of both languages. With this spare style you must enjoy poetic forms such as haiku and tankas.

Comment is about Tyne Cot (blog)

Original item by Jan Theuninck

Michael, I think this is outstanding. It's like a camera panning around with ZOOM lenses and an informed, deeply observant commentary. 'the love of desert only inspired from the shelter of an oasis' - a brilliant insight, one of many.

Why are there two different surnames?

Comment is about Al Jabayl (blog)

Original item by Noetic-fret!

There are very few places available but I hope we can squeeze in one or two more. Please do phone Jennie or email her [see above for details].

Comment is about The ‘Summer Haiku Almanac' workshop & walk (blog)

Original item by Alan Summers

We still have a few places, so it would be great to meet more writeoutloud people!

Comment is about Unique Writing Residency (blog)

Original item by Alan Summers

Pam Ayres comes to mind in this little ditty. Chihuahua needs changing though.

Comment is about dogbo (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Murray And Sod, the Buffalo Bill and Wyatt Earp of the Oceans. Or the Posh and Becks? Or French and Saunders. Hatta x

Comment is about Ann Foxglove (poet profile)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Hi again Cynthia Thanks for the comment on mine. I've just read the poem on your mother and like everyone else I find it very powerful and moving. The title is intriguing and brilliant and immediately draws you into the poem.

Comment is about The Colour of Death Is Gold (blog)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

'Homeric epithet' - I wish I could say "yes", but alas, it was undoubtedly sloppiness :(

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Thanks for your recent comments, they really are very much appreciated. :-)

Janet.x

Comment is about Ann Foxglove (poet profile)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Thanks for your comment on 'Cash Converters.'
The high street shop was the inspiration but i wanted to put a little twist on it. A bit like a new take on the old pawn shop theme. ;-)

Janet.x

Comment is about Andy N (poet profile)

Original item by Andy N

Thanks for commenting on 'Cash Converters.' Much appreciated.

Janet.x

ps. See you at the Tudor Thursday if you're there.

Comment is about Steve Regan (poet profile)

Original item by Steve Regan

Thanks for your lovely comment on 'Cash Converters.'
Much appreciated.

Janet.x

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Well, it's all been said really.
Beautiful and yet heartbreakingly sad.
Very well put together and the narcissus makes it circular. Lovely.

Janet.x

Comment is about The Colour of Death Is Gold (blog)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

I've read this a few times and i too find it a delightful read.
Nice one Ann,

Janet.x

Comment is about twine (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Hi Greg - thanks for commenting on Twine. I just read your comment to David Cooke about taking a couple of your poems away. It's funny how despondent we feel when no one comments on a poem. I'm sure it's just one of those things! I really don't think it reflects badly on the poem's reception. Often a comment is just someone chiming in saying they've had a similar experience as the one described in the poem, not anything to do with the quality of the poem itself. Or it's just a poet "friend" saying something nice. Or it might be a criticism, which is fine as at least you feel someone has read the blimmin thing. Yet . . I can't help feeling a bit miffed when I see some other poem has 99 comments or something, when my poor little poem doesn't have any. Guess it's just human nature! Sometimes though, someone will discover a poem that's been on WOL for ages, and that is nice. So I hope you put your poems back when you feel like it! I always like your stuff! It is very human, gentle, natural and unpretentious. xx

Comment is about Greg Freeman (poet profile)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Hi Greg Glad to hear that you got it into South. Coincidently I nearly suggested that you try The North with it because it looked like the kind of thing they go for. I've never got around to trying South. I seem to remember that you have to fill in some fiddly form. Mind you submitting things anonymously is a good idea. Loads of stuff gets taken just because of someone's name even when it's not very good.

Comment is about Greg Freeman (poet profile)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Hi David, good to see you back here. I thought you'd done a runner! You're right, it has been quiet on the comments lately. So much so that I put two poems up last week then took them down again a couple of days later after they both received nul points, diva that I am! Funnily enough, The Reluctant Volunteer is one of my very few poems that has been published, in South last year.

Comment is about David Cooke (poet profile)

Original item by David Cooke

Hi Ann Thanks for the comment on the translations. I don't think you need to worry about 'knowing' anything about Rilke or translations. I'm pretty free and easy with the originals and just try to write something that sounds like an English poem. I think 'The Panther' may have influenced Ted Hughes to write his poem 'The Jaguar' which is well worth looking up. Lke Greg & Stefan I like this one and the more specific it gets the better, like the bit about the shirt & the tying up to the bedpost. The ending has a nicely risque feel to it as well!

Comment is about twine (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Hi Greg Thanks again for a leaving a comment. It's been very qiet recently. I think my two translations must have frightened everyone away. It's funny you mention piano lessons. I know from my own kids it can be struggle to keep them at it. I would have loved piano lessons, but got boxing lessons instead! I must say The Reluctant Volunteer is very good. I like the portrait of the Sergeant Major and the irony of the phrase 'how's your father? - does anyone say that anymore? The final image is also excellent. You should send it off somewhere.

Comment is about Greg Freeman (poet profile)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Steve, just called in to say I totally agree with the feeling of Imagine Revisited. I'm a great Lennon fan but have always hated that song, and regarded it as a trite dirge. I suspect Yoko wrote the words. Greg

Comment is about Steve Regan (poet profile)

Original item by Steve Regan

Have to agree with Stefan: this is one of your best poems, Ann. Like the picture, too. Greg.

Comment is about twine (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

beauitful stuff, cynthia. bet this took you a while to write! x

Comment is about The Colour of Death Is Gold (blog)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

i enjoyed this. would be tempted to use the last line 'my beauitful, hideaway room' perhaps in a different stanza just to give that a sense off closure, to make people aware you are raising a big point here.

keep em coming - would like to see more in this style.

Comment is about My place. (blog)

A good poem. (Do cows moon? I guess that would look strange! ;-) I love "cold as carp"! I would remove one sylluble from the line and change "That's saps the purpose and estranges the self." to "That saps the purpose and estranges self." Just flows better for me. And once again, an excellent drawing!

Comment is about Where Is The War? (blog)

Original item by Tom Harding

Thanks Dave. Sadly the lucky man is only in my poor deluded head.

Comment is about twine (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Hi Cynthia. Thanks for your thought-provoking comment - I'm still chewing that one over. And thank you for posting this poem

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Thanks for commenting so kindly on Dad's Shed Winston. Yes, those kind of poems are a genre and there have been some fine examples on WOL. They don't seem to make good performance pieces do they - hard to read something so very personal for strangers, for one thing

Comment is about Winston Plowes (poet profile)

Original item by Winston Plowes

Thanks for commenting on Dad's Shed, Greg. I've enjoyed yours - could do with more of them!

Comment is about Greg Freeman (poet profile)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Hi Ann

I visited to thank you for commenting on mine and found this beautiful poem. I think I might have said 'lucky man' re a previous of yours and can but say it again.

Comment is about twine (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Well constructed and very thought provoking, Tom. Some great images too.

Comment is about Where Is The War? (blog)

Original item by Tom Harding

Thanks for commenting on my Fairground series - I'll take your suggestions on board for daredevil diver - I was wee bit tired writing that one and it shows a little I feel
thanks again

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Memories broughtto life in words Dave... the best of this sort of poem brought to WOL, thankyou. Win

Comment is about Dad's shed (blog)

Original item by Dave Bradley

True intimacy in writing is a brave thing, and powerful. It may strike the receptive reader deeply. I think this poem is a potent sharing of human experience, and therefore beautiful.
I also think that power and beauty are the ultimate definition of poetry.

Comment is about Dad's shed (blog)

Original item by Dave Bradley

Thanks Stef xx

Comment is about twine (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

May I use 'adorable' without going all cutesy. And haven't we mums all been there, oh yes! 'His instructions were clear' oh, yes! 'but damn, am i cool!' oh, yes!!

Mine were age 7 - two wood sprite costumes in gauzy material, with deep handkerchief hemlines obligatory --- I nearly went bonkers.

Comment is about World Book Day (blog)

Hey there Kealan, thank you so very much for your lovely comment. Props to you for your powerhouse poems -- accomplished, pithy and potent.

Comment is about Kealan Coady (poet profile)

Original item by Kealan Coady

Thanks Daniel -do you think my language is a bit old-fashioned ? -I'm trying to put modern issues into an old form.

Comment is about Daniel Hooks (poet profile)

Original item by Daniel Hooks

this is a good 'place poem', the retreat associated with the setting is clearly conveyed and evokes a sense of escape.

Comment is about My place. (blog)

love the lines 'dont call me selfish
when you took bread from my hand'
brilliant. Cerys Matthews once wrote, 'you sold the honey to the poor' and everytime i sing along I change it to 'you sold the honey to the bees' some man will try to sell you your original thought...
i would sell money to the poor...but not really. I offered a guy begging some food once and he threw it on the ground complaining he just wanted cash...i suppose poverty is more than the lack of cash.
thanks for this poem x

Comment is about the death (blog)

Original item by Beulah

I liked this a lot, Rachel, especially the final line, which sums up the poem; and the juxtaposition of aunties, handbags, and hankies! Greg

Comment is about First Communion Day (blog)

Original item by Rachel McGladdery

The strength and beauty of these lines must resonate with so many people, Cynthia. Clear-eyed and loving; writing them must have helped you say farewell. Greg

Comment is about The Colour of Death Is Gold (blog)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

This is a beautiful poem, Dave. Clearing out stuff can be very hard. The layers of creosote are strata of family history. Greg

Comment is about Dad's shed (blog)

Original item by Dave Bradley

Thank you -- again! I meant to say, after you mentioned about the road accident themed restaurant piece that, yeay, I am a vegetarian. On the pip of being vegan. And, digressing wildly again, I am delighted you really like my whale mini-song. I've begun creating heaps of them, little audio moments that might be songs or something remotely musical. But they are a pretty new departure for me, more a leap into the dark/noise. I hear them in my head, get a bit obsessed with them, record them (messing with my voice). I really can't tell you how encouraging it is that you like them so much. But how sad to have a dead whale on the beach -- I couldn't have helped carry its bones (too squeamish/weepy and my own bones are going somewhat awry and seem skittish about carrying me around, so I'm considering creating an ex-skeleton or bamboo body scaffolding). I'd have been blubbering my eyes out (oh no, what a terrible pun). It seems right that the local museum should preserve some of it, but mightily suspect that people would take lumps of its bones home as garden features. I also sponsored/adopted a whale called 'Sod'. Yes, it was really called, 'Sod.' I thought, yes, I have been thought of in similar terms by some people, so I shall stand up and be counted as a friend of 'Sod.'

Comment is about Ann Foxglove (poet profile)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Hello! How lovely of you to comment on my oddments. Thank you so very much. Not sure how they emerge or why or from where, but they do. And 'pique freans' and pique-a-knees, and Little Bo-Pique, pique and mix, piquenic are all dancinf to the muzak of time. 'Pique' is hurt pride, dented vanity, a moment of sharp ego-puncture. "Pique' is misused a lot at the moment, usually by being lumped into the phrase 'It piqued my interest/my interest was piqued.' And my quick brown decaffeinated urban fox jumped out of my daydreams. Hey -- your poems are incredibly vibrant and wowser. You seem to be able to flit from joyous comedy/tongue-in-cheekiness to pastoral melancholy. What a range! They're flipping fab.

Comment is about Ann Foxglove (poet profile)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Hi Dave, thanks for posting this gentle sad poem. Even though the shed may be gone, every time you smell creosote you'll be back in there. It hasn't really gone anywhere. xxxx

Comment is about Dad's shed (blog)

Original item by Dave Bradley