Ray thank you for your honest opinions on grave stones and graveyards.

Comment is about Tread gently (blog)

Original item by Abdul Ahmad

Dead right there Greg. The need to grow has become a sort of fightback against lack of hope . You can't just suddenly feel that without some aids - pots, canes, water, sun, a bit of OCD put to good use. We were all over it, and the taste much superior to the alternatives under plastic.

Ray

Comment is about Tomatoes 2020 (blog)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Hi Greg thank you so much for your comments. Things come to mind, I do suffer still, always will apparently.
One thing I have held onto is my hatred of the BBC. They reported and told the Argentinians we were getting ready to assualt Goose Green, so The Argie reinforced Goose Green With 1000 more men, our lads were outnumbered 3 to 1.
Then many of their bombs were not exploding they hit my ship and the bombs didn't explode, they had the detonators set wrong... the fucking BBC reported this! Consequently our ships started blowing up what seemed everywhere. Bastards.
I know a lot of lads who if the BBC embedded someone with them they'd find themselves with a bullet in the back during the next action.
There was a sadness... we were fighting kids with three months training who'd been given a gun, canon fodder for our well trained professionals. We all felt an admiration for their airforce...so brave with low survival chances. They didn't have the fuel to "dog fight" or make much manoeuvring and only had five minutes over target or they would splash down in the Atlantic getting home. But they still came, their limitation of speed made our Harriers look far better than they were. I got that from a couple of Harrier pilots I was drinking with.

Comment is about Greg Freeman (poet profile)

Original item by Greg Freeman

A truly bumper year this year as you say. We have ten plants and are now on our second batch of homemade ketchup. Can’t eat them quick enough.
There’s no comparison between home grown and shop. Home grown love you back!

Pasta sauce with next lot

Comment is about Tomatoes 2020 (blog)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Hi Richard
A harrowing account but so very well told. I've read it through a few times and something new jumps out each time.
Lots to think about here
Jon

Comment is about Memorial Day in Moscow (blog)

Original item by Richard Hartley

Dedicated to tomatoes? I've planted them too, worth the effort.
Thanks for this beautiful poem.
Binte

Comment is about Tomatoes 2020 (blog)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Thanks for the likes and comment Stephen

Comment is about Celebrate Good Times (blog)

Original item by julie callaghan

Great punchline at the end, Julie.

Comment is about Celebrate Good Times (blog)

Original item by julie callaghan

Not sure what it's about John, but I love it! ?. I'll have to read it a few more times to let it sink in..

Comment is about Fable (blog)

Original item by John E Marks

John M, thanks for the alternative line. I suppose the SAS wins out over market traders, although I've seen one or two who would give them a run for their money.

Nicola, yes forbidden fruit can turn out to be rotten. But I suppose that the prospect of it being delicious is what makes it enticing. The reality may, of course, be disappointing.

John C, thanks for the kind words. As to where to find it, try Google Maps and search for Chez Boris (unless your town is locked down, of course).

Thanks to you all for engaging with this poem.

Comment is about Blessed are the lovemakers (blog)

Original item by Stephen Gospage

Thanks for the comments John and Paul and for the like Brian.

I was actually tempted to buy a tub or two the other day?

Comment is about Celebrate Good Times (blog)

Original item by julie callaghan

Flavia, I'm glad they were good tears! And thanks again

Vautaw, thanks, as always, for the comment & encouragement

Nicola, you're absolutely right. There's too much pressure to fit in etc nowadays, especially if you're young I think. & All I can say is that there are people out there, who, without even knowing you, care & root for your eventual happiness. I wish you both a happy future.

John, any suggestions are most welcome! I must admit I'm a bit of a fraud. I've never studied poetic verse & tbh, don't understand the structure of some poetry! I must read more! Thanks for the comment. Much appreciated.

Comment is about Your Scar (blog)

Original item by Stephen W Atkinson

Irrepressible as ever and irresistible to boot! This is worth logging on
to WOL in its own right. There should be a health department that
deals with those who are uncomfortable "in their own skin" to help
advance the sum total of human happiness in these progressive
times. The human being is an extraordinary "machine" that, it can
be argued, requires certain levels of "tinkering" to help it along...n'est
pas? ?

Comment is about "UN HOMME ET UNE FEMME" (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

An entertaining peek into the past. Ah...the start of those "swinging sixties" some of us can recall. Or as a lyric tells it: Those were
the days, my friend...".As for scribbling stuff on available scraps of
paper: in an earlier age, Charles Trenet was reported to have done
that with his great popular song "La Mer" aboard a south-bound
train in pre-war France. It remains a personal favourite, effortlessly
conjuring up the adventure and anticipation experienced during his long-ago journey to the sun.

Comment is about NINETEEN SIXTY TWO (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Allegedly, bob Dylan wrote some of his most famous lyrics on Cafe serviettes/napkins Ray. You should have stuck at it. A charming glimpse back. I am currently fascinated by time for a variety of reasons. My young granddaughter Beatrix is already banging on about Christmas and we of course tell her not to wish her time away.

However, I have recently read that to a six year-old Christmases have come around twenty percent of her lifetime (think about it) whereas for us old 'uni the figure is one and half percent. No wonder they are more seasonally aware.

I'll get my coat if I can remember where I put it!

Comment is about NINETEEN SIXTY TWO (blog)

Original item by ray pool

A beautifully conceived and expressed poem Ian. It has a grandeur quite in contrast to the subject shaped by imagination and empathy. Something to be proud of. Contrasts like this can be a powerful simile.

Ray

Comment is about Messiah Of The Fields (blog)

Original item by Ian Whiteley

The act of diaphragm breathing I learnt many years ago , I hope it catches on - the sense of immediacy increases with it and things seem more in proportion, and an important ingredient in yoga. A good message indeed!

Ray

Comment is about Breathe in (blog)

Original item by Martin Elder

To be brutally hones Abdul I think graves are like afterthoughts - just memories in stone, but important to us remaining (though less so today. It was a fetish in the Victorian times to engrave and romanticize and also to show wealth as a marker. The new terminus for the HS2 will be built on a graveyard several layers deep of bodies presently being excavated with extreme care for the historical narrative.

Ray

Comment is about Tread gently (blog)

Original item by Abdul Ahmad

Brilliantly conveyed Phil. Your profile title is a reversal of the truth, unless i'm much mistaken. That palpable sense of being suspended in time with it's awful consequences is well worth a post.
The only thing I remember is having to always play Land of Hope and f...g Glory after every function band occasion. The Thatcher principle was rife with hopes and feelings of the country's self worth. Basically the taste of more money released into the overblown market.

Ray

Comment is about Clean dry socks, Falklands 1982. (blog)

Original item by mentalelf. Philk.

Marvellous picture of what it must have been like “on the ground”. So simple yet so effective.

Comment is about Clean dry socks, Falklands 1982. (blog)

Original item by mentalelf. Philk.

I take the opposite position, Julie. I buy Christmas puddings in January when they’ve knocked the prices down. And with a vacuum-sealed product with a 2-year sell-by date anyway, where’s the sense in not?

Comment is about Celebrate Good Times (blog)

Original item by julie callaghan

Fascinated by your Profile poem, 'Aye, Wingate', Stephen, and the revelation that a little part of your village was taken and rebuilt at Beamish, the museum close to the Angel of the North, which I visited recently. I found Beamish very interesting, but also a somewhat eerie, spooky place - a place deserving a poem or two of its own.

Comment is about Stephen W Atkinson (poet profile)

Original item by Stephen W Atkinson

Fascinating, eye-witness account of a very strange, brief war that nevetheless claimed lives on both sides. Quite unlike Iraq or Afghanistan or indeed Northern Ireland, but it took its own toll, both at the time and afterwards. And arguably deeply affected British politics - but this isn't the place to go into that. I remember being in the newsroom during this war. But there is never any substitute for the account of someone who was actually there. I hope it doesn't keep you awake too much at night - but I suspect it does. Have a medal for writing this.

Comment is about Clean dry socks, Falklands 1982. (blog)

Original item by mentalelf. Philk.

Many thanks, gentle-persons-with-penises (or is that penes.)

Comment is about "UN HOMME ET UNE FEMME" (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

It's a thumbs up from me. ?

Comment is about "UN HOMME ET UNE FEMME" (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Needs two likes...so here's another one ....LIKE.

Comment is about "UN HOMME ET UNE FEMME" (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Rhythmic and tight, Stephen. My kind of stuff.
(But can you let me know where to find it in my town?)

Comment is about Blessed are the lovemakers (blog)

Original item by Stephen Gospage

Thanks Paul. Yes that is so true that we prepare our selves for the way ahead. rather those brief moments.

Comment is about Breathe in (blog)

Original item by Martin Elder

Thank you for your continued encouragement and support through your likes and comments Stephen A.?



Stephen G., and Shifa I am also encouraged by you taking the time to read and like.Thank you!xx

Comment is about (Promise) Land Ahoy (blog)

Original item by Flavia Gordon

Thank you so much, Paul...Just trying to keep it happy, shiny, and hopeful...reduce the doom and gloom.?

Comment is about (Promise) Land Ahoy (blog)

Original item by Flavia Gordon

Thank you for your kind and beautiful words Paul. I will do just that. What you've written actually reminds me of a Tracy Chapman song I sing out loud often; "I'm Ready" (to let the rivers wash over me). xx



Stephen G., Thank you! My poems are often on the dark and pessimistic side...I am trying desperately to step into the light. You all here on WOL have been very motivating.xx

Comment is about Fools Rush In (Inner monologue of a childhood sexual abuse survivor cont'd) (blog)

Original item by Flavia Gordon

Thank you, Jordyn, Stephen G., Abdul, and Stephen A.xx

Warmly,
Flavia

Comment is about BROKEN (blog)

Original item by Flavia Gordon

Oh Stephen, no need to apologize!
It was a cleansing cry...very much needed and appreciated.
A lot of what you expressed hit home, that is all.
It is not every day you come across someone who hasn't gone through it themselves that gets it.❤❤

Comment is about Your Scar (blog)

Original item by Stephen W Atkinson

I agree Nicola. I want to leave the past, but the past doesn’t want to leave me. It lingers in my memory looking for resolution and meaning. Perhaps the solution is as simple as Paul suggests, a change of seasons.

Comment is about Deflowered (blog)

Original item by Vautaw

Forbidden fruit is never what it seems to be, it usually tastes rotten when bitten to the core and the truth will often surface, even years later the truth comes out

Comment is about Blessed are the lovemakers (blog)

Original item by Stephen Gospage

Singing in a field of weeds, I'm doing the same right now.... There's only one way and that's to ignore the calls of jealousy envy and the past, the past is the past leave it there.

Comment is about Deflowered (blog)

Original item by Vautaw

I have an adopted daughter whose 23 and self harms due to the way her father treated her growing up. I needed to read this right now as she's going through a rough ride again at the minute with the self hatred, in a world of scams, greed, money and porn is it any wonder young women's and sometimes young men's self esteem is harmed x

Comment is about Your Scar (blog)

Original item by Stephen W Atkinson

Paul, what an amazing poem. I love it. Thank you for sharing your beautiful soul. ❤️?????

Comment is about Deflowered (blog)

Original item by Vautaw

Wow Stephen, this spoke to my inner child. Powerful poetry. ?

Comment is about Your Scar (blog)

Original item by Stephen W Atkinson

Yes 'wares' has the smack of a market trader. I'm thinking of that SAS 'Who dares wins' adage. 'For the victor is s/he who dares'. Maybe ?

Comment is about Blessed are the lovemakers (blog)

Original item by Stephen Gospage

"Like melting diamonds water flowed

In shimmering light, a gift bestowed

My mind uprooted for new abode."


You have the gift Stephen. Write on. Maybe substitute 'a' for 'for', with a comma before 'for', as a caesura? Makes the lines scan better as I read. Only an idea. Hope you don't mind. John

Comment is about Your Scar (blog)

Original item by Stephen W Atkinson

Flavia, sorry for making you cry! But I'm glad you found it uplifting, that was the ultimate aim. As always, thank you for taking the time to comment

Comment is about Your Scar (blog)

Original item by Stephen W Atkinson

Stephen....I haven't been able to cry for a while now...you broke the dam. It's one of those that leaves you refreshed when done.
Heartwrenching and uplifting all at once.
Thank you for sharing

Comment is about Your Scar (blog)

Original item by Stephen W Atkinson

As ever, thank you for your comment Paul.

Comment is about Your Scar (blog)

Original item by Stephen W Atkinson

Thanks to Philipos, Emer, Binte, Jordyn and Stephen for liking

Also thanks for commenting Flavia I am glad you enjoyed it . Sometimes we have to take time to take stop and simply just breathe
Cheers

Comment is about Breathe in (blog)

Original item by Martin Elder

Awe, thank you Kimberly. ? Here is a bouquet of flowers for you! ?

Comment is about Deflowered (blog)

Original item by Vautaw

You’ll always have my flower, V. ?

Comment is about Deflowered (blog)

Original item by Vautaw

Thanks Trevor A and Tom for the likes.

I'm glad you found this of interest Trevor. I do get some strange ideas and am happy to express them !

Paul, I too am encouraged with your comment, thanks.

Mphiliseni, i'm flattered.!

I choose my victims at random Stephen, but Essex I do know a bit from living in Walthamstow years ago. Some flat areas there mostly and ideal for sieges and surges. Please let us see that poem too!

All the best readers. Ray

Comment is about ESSEX HAS FALLEN! (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Whisper it, Brian, but I am an East Midlander by birth.
I don’t have one Stephen, and not likely to at over £100 a time.
Thanks also for the Likes, Raquel and Stephen Atkinson.

Comment is about GANSEY (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

A great life. I have a dog but (not often) a bike.

Comment is about An addiction to cycling and exercising my dog (blog)

Original item by hugh