Julie, yes it's at the back of the book & thanks.
And Thank you Steve H. Yes I did get a little rosy glow feeling when it was complete! Thanks again
Comment is about Book out now!... or you could just read them on here lol! (blog)
Original item by Stephen W Atkinson
Hope you settle in like a hand in a glove, Greg! I've gone past the Angel so many times (mainly to go to the Metrocentre, where 'the wife' loves to spend time & money!) I don't even notice it anymore. Which is a bit sad! I'll have to rediscover it once again!
Good luck
Comment is about North (blog)
Original item by Greg Freeman
John, you told me that last year as well! I'm sorry, I can't help it. I love this place. And the Angel does kind of take you by surprise as you come up the A1. Graham, many thanks for your comments. Rothbury is just along the road from us. Thanks too for the Likes, Nigel, Clare, Stephen, Holden, K. Lynn, Hélène, and Frederick
Comment is about North (blog)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Ssshhh, Greg. Keep Northumberland a secret. Incidentally, I love the way Gormley has made the Angel androgynous.
Comment is about North (blog)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Thanks for your lovely likes: Frederick, Tom, Holden, K..Lynn, Helene and Kamran. welcome to H and K .
A philosophical approach Graham. A dishwasher can be a bit of a pain with its restrictions and guidelines. We enjoyed the suds too this time round. I never put decent glasses in there, also hand turned mugs etc. blah blah! All in all, a therapeutic experience and we talked so there you are.
Russell, sounds like a special case, I bow to your needs of course.
Thanks Stephen, you've seen the truth of it as always. The last line a RP special.
That sounds better than a telly Greg. Add a soupcon of birdsong and a sly fox etc and I would swop (or is it swap) places. The dishwasher is by nature a bit furtive, even arty farty I reckon. I hope you're both settling in and getting logs in, etc.
Ray
Comment is about WORKING AS ONE (blog)
Original item by ray pool
ahh the sweet pleasure of having your work published. Well done and best wishes for the book 😀
Comment is about Book out now!... or you could just read them on here lol! (blog)
Original item by Stephen W Atkinson
Thanks Stephen didn’t see my name but thank you for the acknowledgment. 🌈
Comment is about Book out now!... or you could just read them on here lol! (blog)
Original item by Stephen W Atkinson
Such a waste of life a strong emotional poem Stephen.
Comment is about Foot Soldiers (blog)
Original item by Stephen Gospage
Good idea Stephen you will be safe there.
Comment is about The Dead Good Halloween Party (blog)
Original item by Nigel Astell
Greg I really like the stripped back look and feel of this. Makes me feel like I’m in the back of your car flashing past those landmarks.
Say hello to Rothbury for me and look after yourself up there!
Comment is about North (blog)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Circle of Life? I sometimes mix that up with the Lion Sleeps Tonight!
Comment is about use ubiquitous in a poem (blog)
Original item by Red Brick Keshner
Thank you Stephen, and for all your inspiring comments!
And likewise Tom! & I might give the authors page a try, though it might take another 5 year to fill another book! 😆
And John- a description well deserved!
And thank you Julie, hope you don't mind that I've mentioned you in the acknowledgement for your constant support 🌈
Comment is about Book out now!... or you could just read them on here lol! (blog)
Original item by Stephen W Atkinson
Thankyou, MC and Stephen. You’re right about Dickens. He also invited his friend Jake Thackray to witness one hanging. There is also a film starring Timothy Spall about Albert Pierrepoint, Stephen, which shows the old dropper in a sympathetic light as he hangs several Nazi war ctminals.
And thanks for the Likes, Stephen A and Holden.
Comment is about YOU'RE PULLING MY LEG (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
I think he has done the BBC proud. Some of the content may annoy us from time to time but in the end you can't beat public service broadcasting, free from adverts and media moguls.
Comment is about 'Despite occasional interference ...': Simon Armitage's poem 'Transmission Report' celebrates 100 years of the BBC (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Insanely good, Kevin.
Comment is about False teeth distort the truth (blog)
Original item by Kevin Vose
Think I'll stick to BBC2, Nigel!
Comment is about The Dead Good Halloween Party (blog)
Original item by Nigel Astell
I hope you are, John. There is remarkable film by the Japanese director Oshima called 'Death by Hanging', in which a Korean man is hung for murder in Japan but somehow survives. It turns out that they can't hang him again unless he confesses to his crime on the same day. The film (which is definitely anti-capital punishment) is quite disturbing but also manages to be hilariously funny. A neglected gem, I think, but no one tries to pull his leg.
Comment is about YOU'RE PULLING MY LEG (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
Thank you for the generous comment, Greg. War is ultimately the consumption of human lives.
I hope the move went according to plan.
And thanks to John and Frederick for the likes.
Comment is about Foot Soldiers (blog)
Original item by Stephen Gospage
Wasn't Charles Dickens motivated to end public executions by
what he witnessed as a young reporter?
But evil itself still exists - as was the case in the conviction in
Derby of a man who tortured and murdered an 86 year old
woman and viciously assasulted her husband during his
intent to steal money from them in their home. The sentence
of imprisonment seems woefully inadequate for such sustained merciless brutality and if he had been sentenced to hang (no
longer possible, more's the pity) he would have deserved the
end of a boot to help him on his way.
Comment is about YOU'RE PULLING MY LEG (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
Did any of my kin drop by and hand you a bob or two for that tugging on my leg!? 😂
Comment is about YOU'RE PULLING MY LEG (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
You’re welcome, Stephen. Delighted you gave me my full job description!
Comment is about Book out now!... or you could just read them on here lol! (blog)
Original item by Stephen W Atkinson
I have nothing against him having his vote, Stephen,. But until he can demonstrate a certain level of intellect (say, “Join Up The Dots”) I would restrict his democratic involvement to voting for Goal of the Month and getting rid of has-beens from Strictly.
And thanks for the Like, Frederick.
Comment is about FROM RAGS TO RISHI (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
An expertly crafted poem, Steve. You are a war poet de nos jours.
Comment is about Foot Soldiers (blog)
Original item by Stephen Gospage
This is very impressive, Tom. You oral reading complements the power of the poem. Thanks.
Comment is about Like Someone Who Knows Me (blog)
Original item by Tom
Totally agree Kevin. We are all not better than anyone else. And fondness, well, that goes quite a long long way! 😊
Comment is about use ubiquitous in a poem (blog)
Original item by Red Brick Keshner
This is beautiful, Helène. I love 'See shapes, with no names attached'.
Comment is about Like a Child (blog)
Original item by Hélène
Well done Stephen. Looking forward to revisiting some old favourites. Congratulations on the release of your book.
Comment is about Book out now!... or you could just read them on here lol! (blog)
Original item by Stephen W Atkinson
Fine poem, Ray. It's not always progress. We have a dishwasher in our kitchen in Northumberland but the view of the garden from the kitchen sink is so wonderful, I don't think we'll ever use it.
Comment is about WORKING AS ONE (blog)
Original item by ray pool
Nice one Stephen, looking forward to getting my copy (and John's new book too). Set yourself up a KDP author page so I can stalk your writing fully 😉
Just spotted the mention! :) Very nicely done. Thank you!
Comment is about Book out now!... or you could just read them on here lol! (blog)
Original item by Stephen W Atkinson
Thanks Kevin, that's a really interesting take and I'd love to imagine there's enough ambiguity in the words for it to be read that way.
This was my off-kilter, melodramatic (and admittedly self-indulgent) take on finding out about the transgressions of someone I knew (or thought I knew) who had been hiding their real self from everyone for a very long time. Thanks for reading and commenting.
Thanks Frederick and Kamran for reading and making it to the end of this very long poem.
Comment is about Like Someone Who Knows Me (blog)
Original item by Tom
Quite right, John, although the bloke in the boozer still gets his look in at elections. Not much we can do about that, I guess.
Comment is about FROM RAGS TO RISHI (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
A marvellous poem about memories and the joy of everyday things, Ray. (Even a broken dishwasher!) The last line is great.
Comment is about WORKING AS ONE (blog)
Original item by ray pool
Congratulations on getting this done, Stephen. I'll be ordering my copy.
No problem with the mention - it's kind of you to think of me.
Comment is about Book out now!... or you could just read them on here lol! (blog)
Original item by Stephen W Atkinson
Thank you, Graham!
Comment is about Write Out Loud Woking marks six years with anthology (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
You are really good at stream-of consciousness-style writing. I love the line "I’m an old woman I should
dress in black count my beads
on my knees in church every day
turn off the news, cower at home
read novels, write bad verse." Captures the sentiment really well.
Comment is about Sunday, April 17, 2022 (blog)
Original item by K. Lynn
Dear Holden I admire this poem a lot. It is difficult sometimes to maintain a conceit (extended metaphor) even in a short verse. John Donne was a master of this art, we are his acolytes.
A sonnet for John Donne (1572 - 1631)
Airy valedictions cannot span this bridge in time
What’s mine is yours, what’s yours is very definitely mine.
We both can hear the quiet roar of our own new found land
As time drifts to a stop and as we focus near and far
We no longer stand amazed at the hollow rancour of public life
And have no more time for the mere indulgences of strife.
We look too much upon these empty places, the sands
That have run out, sans mistress, husband, lover, wife.
Faces that bloomed at noontide fade like a plangent song
Sung as we leave the stage with ne’er a whisper of regret
To walk into eternity with all the grace the less deceived
Can muster, as leaves turn golden at this late turning of the year.
And now those twin compass points of greed and fear draw near
Then, quite suddenly disappear: a point upon a circle, a tear upon a face.
Comment is about Sundial (blog)
Original item by Holden Moncrieff
I, like you I guess, intensely dislike (though sometimes admire) the use of sarcasm, satire, irony, sneering. All these negative forms of rhetoric are like wasps, designed to annoy and sting.
“What are others worth that they have the nerve to sneer at any human being?”
― Graham Greene, The Heart of the Matter
Comment is about Home... (blog)
Original item by Holden Moncrieff
Hello Holden. This poem of yours put me in mind of the final paragraph of 'The Dead' the final story in James Aloysius Joyce's collection 'Dubliners' , a paragraph that adumbrates much of Joyce's future writing:
"Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, further westwards, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling too upon every part of the lonely churchyard where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead."
Every time I read this, I cry for all the living and all the dead.
Comment is about Universal (blog)
Original item by Holden Moncrieff
Tip-top Holden.
Ethos, pathos, logos, and kairos (καιρός) all have taken their place in the poet's rhetorical armoury.
Comment is about Duel... (blog)
Original item by Holden Moncrieff
James Aloysius Joyce expressed this pithily in 'Ulysses':
“Think you're escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home.” ―
Comment is about Find & Seek (blog)
Original item by Holden Moncrieff
Liberty is a conundrum - a free spirit is not limited by others' conceptions of liberty.
“We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edge of print. It gave us more freedom. We lived in the gaps between the stories.” Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale.
Comment is about Catch (blog)
Original item by Holden Moncrieff
‘ “Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.” Orwell, 1984.
It is the unackowledged, middle-of-the-road dystopia that terrifies me.
Comment is about Dystopic. (blog)
Original item by Holden Moncrieff
Graham, I can't recommend them enough! It is odd though...
Ray
Comment is about TRANSFORMATION (blog)
Original item by ray pool
My thanks to John, Stephen, Rudyard, Pete and Nigel for liking this poem. Places change and it's usually a mistake to go back, even if in a rather second-hand way.
Comment is about Saxmundham (blog)
Original item by Stephen Gospage
They are my desktop screensaver. How odd?
Comment is about TRANSFORMATION (blog)
Original item by ray pool
raypool
Sun 30th Oct 2022 16:35
I love the insinuations of this Ralph - how do we take it, with a pinch of salt or on draught as it were? A lot of subtlety, some irony, hero worship dashed but poignant too, and would Gareth have been as deep an observer as you. Not on the poetry front I suspect. A lovely offering!
Ray
Comment is about England's Dreaming (blog)
Original item by Ralph Dartford