We certainly need a higher power at the moment Stephen. I pray, just in case... Yet another fine poem!

Comment is about Let us pray (blog)

Original item by Stephen Gospage

Fascinating, funny, truthful, enlightening (who knew? I didn't) and wonderful! Thank you Clare. 😀

Comment is about Bling (blog)

Original item by Clare

Lovely stuff MC. Really enjoyed this! 😀

Comment is about LIFE IS BUT A JOKE (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

Thanks MC. I am pleased that you picked up on the dark humour. Death at least releases one from obligations. (Not that I'm anxious to try it!) 😀
Thanks Bethany, Tom and Stephen A for the likes.

Comment is about A Convenient Time (blog)

Original item by John Botterill

excellent

Comment is about From The Hollow (blog)

Original item by Stephen W Atkinson

I like the way that you use simple wording and still manage to get a lot of brilliantly meaningful depth

Comment is about Launch of my fifth book, The Pleasure of Firing Back (blog)

Original item by Graham Buchan

The sardonic humour is enjoyably captured in this literary
realisation of the awkward timings that permeate our lives.
The last line is perfect.

Comment is about A Convenient Time (blog)

Original item by John Botterill

Tom - happy to oblige! 😌

Comment is about LIFE IS BUT A JOKE (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

I enjoyed taking this trip, not least for the chance to revisit the
rarely seen printed word "English". The image of the one-armed
man with his conspiratorial wink, brought back the sort of
elderly men I knew here in the London of my own youth before
the great change set in..

Comment is about I'd like to walk that way again (blog)

Original item by John E Marks

Thanks for this MC. The glass coffins one got me 😂

Comment is about LIFE IS BUT A JOKE (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

Thanks Holden. That line was a last minute amendment. Glad I did it! 😀

Comment is about A Convenient Time (blog)

Original item by John Botterill

Verra verra neece ma goode friend M.C.

Comment is about GOD, MY DOG AND ME (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

na thess es grrrand!

Comment is about Pollen (blog)

Original item by Cody Roach

Thanks Graham re "A turning look"
🙂

Comment is about Graham Sherwood (poet profile)

Original item by Graham Sherwood

Thanks Stephen re "A turning look"
🙂

Comment is about Stephen Gospage (poet profile)

Original item by Stephen Gospage

Thank you, Frederick, for your fascinating analysis of this. One of the values of this blog is that it gives writers food for thought and a chance to revisit the original poem. Thanks again.

Comment is about Tears (blog)

Original item by Stephen Gospage

You might well be right, K. It would certainly give anthropological provenance to Our Gert (or “Farts in her Sleep” as she is known”).
And thanks for the Like, Stephen A.

Comment is about DANCES WITH WOLVES (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Thanks, John and Graham, for your comments on this one. I am in your camp and generally prefer to put my faith in the living. Having said that, I have often noticed that prayer can be separated from belief. Some will need to pray, especially in terrible situations like wars, even while being profoundly sceptical about the existence of any god. In this way, prayer may represent hope and optimism, a belief that humanity can do better.

And thanks for liking this one: Stephen, Rudyard, Holden and Bethany.

Comment is about Let us pray (blog)

Original item by Stephen Gospage

I like Indigenes, which Louise Erdrich uses in her novel, The Sentence.

But didn't some ancient Americans double back to Eurasia and mix with the Proto-IndoEuropeans? The PIE supposedly had more DNA in common with the Americans than with the Farmers in Europe. Out of America as well as Out of Africa ...

The poet Adrian C. Louis hated the name 'Native American' and called himself a half breed because of his mixed heritage ...

Comment is about DANCES WITH WOLVES (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

This is very cleverly written, John! "To finish off my earthly rhyme" is a really great line! 😎

Comment is about A Convenient Time (blog)

Original item by John Botterill

Thanks John, Stephen G and Stephen A,nbHolden and K Lynn for the likes! (The sufferer wasn't amused by the blue blood quip!)

Jennifer

Comment is about Circulation (blog)

Original item by Jennifer Malden

Thanks Clare. I really appreciate your comments. I agree. It's all a comedy of errors! 😀

Comment is about A Convenient Time (blog)

Original item by John Botterill

There's never a convenient time for death, or birth. It's a miracle the human species has survived! Love the poem, John.

Comment is about A Convenient Time (blog)

Original item by John Botterill

Thanks Graham! Would you like to join in? 😃 I believe Stephen now has to pick the next word. 😃

Comment is about Tears (blog)

Original item by Rasa Kabaila

If someone wants to believe in a higher power that’s fine by me. But, like Graham, I prefer to take personal responsibility.

Comment is about Let us pray (blog)

Original item by Stephen Gospage

I enjoyed this, Russell. I’m sure we all regret the things we didn’t do. And find excuses for not doing them.

Comment is about Is it too late to kick start a wasted life? (blog)

Original item by JD Russell

Many thanks for your thoughts Graham, MC and Bethany.
“First Nation” you say, Graham? This is even more contrived than “Native American”. I am no expert on early “American” history but I’d be extremely sceptical that the Mohicans of the North East would have any sense of nationhood with the Apache of the South West, or the Crow of the Mid-West with the Cherokee of the South-East; or pretty much any tribe with any other!
And I would be flattered beyond belief, Bethany, to be called “ Him Tickles Girls’ Fancies” (or even “Tickled”), although that might attract the attention of Operation Yewtree!

Comment is about DANCES WITH WOLVES (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

JC I rather think you might be named
‘Plays without Silver’ just a thought!

Comment is about DANCES WITH WOLVES (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

John can I suggest remembering my mums overused saying

him tickle girls fancy

Comment is about DANCES WITH WOLVES (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

SG - thanks for that! I'm ringing back with the one about the
guy who invented the door-knocker and won the no-bell prize!

Comment is about LIFE IS BUT A JOKE (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

My own knowledge of Putney is limited to a long-ago visit to a
well-known bike shop called - perhaps appropriately, considering this poetical diversion - "Holdsworth"! To which i could add:
"Get a grip, Ray". 😊

Comment is about WHILST IN PUTNEY (blog)

Original item by ray pool

The generic term "First Nation" seems illogical, not least because
tribal identities were so varied and were frequently in conflict
with each other. Who then was first among the so-called nation
across that vast continent? Get in line and put your case! 😉

Comment is about DANCES WITH WOLVES (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Well well JC I thought you were more woke than that. You really need to keep up. The correct term for those you call native Americans is now people of the ‘First Nation’.

Always happy to moderate 😉

Comment is about DANCES WITH WOLVES (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Know the feeling. A signed copy of my self-published "Singing
Words" turned up in a charity shop (now closed) in Paddington
here in central London. It pleased me to note that the asking price
was almost that of the original RRP.

Comment is about Poet's 'rite of passage' after book turns up in Oxfam shop (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Another entertaining and informative post from a source that
offers these - plus the occasionally contentious variety - with
pleasing frequency. This topic reminds me of a builders'
van I saw nearby that proclaimed: "You've known the cowboys -
now try the Indians." Wit transcends many aspects of life.
MC (AKA: Sighs Over Size) 😊

Comment is about DANCES WITH WOLVES (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Outside .
High Royds Asylum,
Menston
Ikley
West Yorkshire.
U.k.

Comment is about Casino Square Monaco. (photo)

Original item by Grant Leonard Aspinall

Good to see you getting this thing off the ground!

Comment is about Tears (blog)

Original item by Rasa Kabaila

Thought provoking stuff as always Stephen.
I prefer to put my faith in the living (friends, family etc) and do my
best to look after them the best I can.
While I wouldn't castigate people with the 'other' type of faith, I do believe we all need a degree of certainty (good or bad) to get by.

Comment is about Let us pray (blog)

Original item by Stephen Gospage

Thank you so much Stephen and John. 😃 Wishing you both a lovely day.

Hehe, thanks for validating going over the ten lines John! And Stephen, I often seek out movies that I think will make me cry-to give me an outlet!

Best wishes,
Rasa

Comment is about Tears (blog)

Original item by Rasa Kabaila

Thank you Stephen! Much appreciated and glad you think so. 😃

Comment is about Young Family In The Sunshine (blog)

Original item by Tom

Thanks Holden. Your appreciative comments mean a lot 😀

Comment is about My Mother, Waving Goodbye. (blog)

Original item by John Botterill

Lovely poem on the theme, Clare.

Comment is about Osmosis Of Emotion (blog)

Original item by Clare

A wonderful, surreal poem, Ray.

Comment is about WHILST IN PUTNEY (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Picks up the internal slack and brings about an emotional tension that allows for one to face the day and the prospects of oncoming ones. When tears are the only external evidence of having lived a life, existence ceases and like the fresh after-rain, brings a moist clarity that fills in the cracks and mends the broken places. Thanks for sharing. Frederick 👍

Comment is about Tears (blog)

Original item by Stephen Gospage

Thank you so much for your kind words, Ursula! 😊

Comment is about Futility (blog)

Original item by Holden Moncrieff

A genuinely moving poem, John! 🌷 I loved the lines
"A mother's smile was on her face
Epitomising all her love and grace." 😊

Comment is about My Mother, Waving Goodbye. (blog)

Original item by John Botterill

Well written and well expressed. Thumbs up for this Holden.👍

Comment is about Futility (blog)

Original item by Holden Moncrieff

Thank you so much for the kind comment, John, I truly appreciate it! I wouldn't have even written the poem if it hadn't been for your suggestion to try the 'tears' challenge! 😎

Comment is about Futility (blog)

Original item by Holden Moncrieff

Hi Maxine. I just read your wonderful sample poems. Fabulous! I loved 'Last Night'. You are very talented. Shetland sounds lovely. Would love to see more of your poems on the site. Best wishes, Ursula👍

Comment is about Maxine Rose Munro (poet profile)

Original item by Maxine Rose Munro

I always fight shy of assuming poetry is largely autobiographical. However, this is an interesting piece, which can be read in several ways. Surely the central tenet of the work. I hope!

Comment is about WHILST IN PUTNEY (blog)

Original item by ray pool