This is brilliantly written, RA. We have one but only use it if we can rent some fireproof overalls. Just what you need in 35 degree heat.
Do you remember an old Smith and Jones 'Home-made video' sketch called Bar-B-Q?

Comment is about The Eternal Flame (blog)

Original item by R A Porter

A profound poem; Mike. We have to keep asking this basic question: why do wars happen? I want to believe that humanity is good and wishes to live in peace. We must continue striving for this.

Comment is about Kim Phúc The Napalm Girl (blog)

Original item by Mike Bartram

Is it Graham? I'm sorry to hear that.
This had happened to me 10 years ago, in 2014, after an accident. I still don't remember the happenings of that particular day till today.

Comment is about Amnesia (blog)

Original item by Manish

Thank you guys, i love your support. Love.

Comment is about Colony 2B (blog)

Original item by RudyardK

How many movie titles can you name? Clever & fun poem 😄

Comment is about Cinematic Dream (blog)

Original item by Mike Horsfall

Thank you J.C. Glad you liked the mix!
And, Bethany, you're too kind 😊
And thanks for the likes Holden, Leon, Aisha & Rob. Thou art all princess' & Knights 🤺🫅

Comment is about The Fields of Avalon (pt 2 & 3) (blog)

Original item by Stephen W Atkinson

John,
Thank you for this profile which I am so able to relate to. I had three jobs to earn extra cash. A milk round, an evening paper round and shelf stacking in one of the new supermarkets on Saturdays. I went to a Secondary Modern School, passed with two O levels. A failure but at the age of 39 years I arrived in Oxford and proved to the bastards that I did have a brain and dignity.
Great poem and thank you for it,
Keith

Comment is about Levelling Up - the undeserving poor (blog)

Original item by John E Marks

Yes John, what are we like? Pyromania runs deep. Tragically there are fewer places I’d rather be on a sweet summer’s evening than standing by my own Webber barbecue with my headphones on listening to some poetry stuff or a sports commentary, shuffling my wife’s home made burgers around, glancing up to smile at her through the kitchen window every so often and watching the bats. Bliss, but guilty bliss.

Comment is about The Eternal Flame (blog)

Original item by R A Porter

Landi, I often find your work hard to read/decipher but I really do like this piece

Comment is about evensong (blog)

Original item by Landi Cruz

I think I've been in that place too!

Comment is about Amnesia (blog)

Original item by Manish

As a veteren myself I fully appreciate well written poems about the futility and cost of war. I have a book of WW1 poems and this could easily sit beside the great quite comfortably. Well done, well written

Comment is about Lest we Forget (blog)

Original item by Mike Horsfall

Nothing in this poem, Stephen, that one could not fail to thoroughly enjoy. Thank you.

Bethany

Comment is about The Fields of Avalon (pt 2 & 3) (blog)

Original item by Stephen W Atkinson

Such a happy go lucky poem, Aisha. Thank you.


Bethany

Comment is about Let The Music Play (blog)

Original item by Aisha Suleman

It is my fault forging me and come back to me

Comment is about How I Learned to Dislike Fishing - For Anything! (blog)

Original item by Mike McPeek

Content wrong I was trying to let go of the love my life cause it was driving me crazy I still want and need my luvbug

Comment is about Three Sentence Breakup (blog)

Original item by Mike McPeek

When you miss someone that has your heart you don't stop missing them until there in your arms

Comment is about Starlight (blog)

Original item by Mike McPeek

Mike I think we need to talk if this is who I think idc about anything at all call me anything and I mean anything can be worked thru

Comment is about Consequences (blog)

Original item by Mike McPeek

The pic looks just like the love of my life

Comment is about Muse (blog)

Original item by Mike McPeek

Amy are you writing these their recent and well you already know I love you

Comment is about More or less (blog)

Original item by Mike McPeek

Personal, Poignant and powerful.

Comment is about River Of Tears (blog)

Original item by Trevor Alexander

They only have 3 songs, David.
“O sole mio”
“Watch out! There’s a cat”
“You’re gonna get your f***** head kicked in”.
Viz, courtship, alarm, territory.

Comment is about A Little Bird (blog)

Original item by David R Mellor

It’s a Man Thing.
Having said that, I watched my neighbour trying to make a fire and thought “If anyone was ever made for the 21st century it was you!”

Comment is about The Eternal Flame (blog)

Original item by R A Porter

Wonderful. A meld of the mythical, common-place and universal.

Comment is about The Fields of Avalon (pt 2 & 3) (blog)

Original item by Stephen W Atkinson

Thanks Stephen, maybe a month early, but we know the season of CO2 & Sizzle will soon be upon us!

Comment is about The Eternal Flame (blog)

Original item by R A Porter

Thank you all!!!

Comment is about Repeat once. (blog)

Original item by RudyardK

Never never never will we humans have such loyal friends like these guys
10/10 Mike 👍

Comment is about Adopt (blog)

Original item by Mike Horsfall

Thanks John,

I sent you a private message, I'm fine with your comments and grateful for them.

David

Comment is about Suspended (blog)

Original item by David RL Moore

Thank you Stephen Atkinson. Glad to be part of this community with you.

Comment is about A Special Place For Us (blog)

Original item by Auracle

Loved it, succinct yet very satisfactory

Comment is about A Little Bird (blog)

Original item by David R Mellor

Love it, my little girl has a similar story, so glad we could rescue her. That's her in my profile picture. A great write.

Comment is about Adopt (blog)

Original item by Mike Horsfall

I didn’t see it as a weakness, David. I thought it was an excellent case of the sense and the delivery being completely at one. (There is probably a literary term for it).

Comment is about Suspended (blog)

Original item by David RL Moore

An excellent poem, welled up my eyes, made me read twice.
Thank you for this.

Comment is about Adopt (blog)

Original item by Mike Horsfall

Great poem Mike 👍 God bless them one and all!





Rose 💋

Comment is about Adopt (blog)

Original item by Mike Horsfall

Thank you for your delightful comment, Stephen! 😊

Comment is about The Fields Of Avalon (blog)

Original item by Stephen W Atkinson

Clever, witty & wonderful flow. Top marks again, R.A. 👏

Comment is about The Eternal Flame (blog)

Original item by R A Porter

I love a hot coffee & a good poem, Keith. Thank you! 👏

Comment is about Waking moments (blog)

Original item by keith jeffries

We're all different, Kevin. Just some are more different than others, and is that a bad thing? I think not!
Nice one

Comment is about A Special Place For Us (blog)

Original item by Auracle

Thank you leon. You are way to kind to me. Just words without the music sucks big time.

Comment is about Repeat once. (blog)

Original item by RudyardK

Thank you so much, John, for your thoughtful comment, and attention to detail! 😊

Comment is about In memoriam... (blog)

Original item by Holden Moncrieff

Thank you for the like Manish.

David

Comment is about Suspended (blog)

Original item by David RL Moore

Thank you to everyone who liked & commented this.

There are individuals who are messaging me through the inbox, with the intent to damage me.

I'm warning you, be careful. These individuals are not here to engage in poetry. They are for some reason out to harm me.

My family has survived genocide, so I'm aware of the evil humans are capable of.

Be careful and look after yourselves.

Auracle (Kevin Tan)

Comment is about A Special Place For Us (blog)

Original item by Auracle

Thank you, John, for the lovely quote, your support means a lot! 😊

Comment is about Songbird. (blog)

Original item by Holden Moncrieff

Thank you so much, John, that's very kind of you! 😊

Comment is about Farce. (blog)

Original item by Holden Moncrieff

Thank you so much, John, for your insightful comment, I really appreciate it! 😊

Comment is about Silhouette. (blog)

Original item by Holden Moncrieff

Loved it your royal Keithiness 😁 when in my winter invaded bedroom and my uncaring alarm does its ringing best to annoy me I make a quick off the cuff vow

that I WILL arise and go now once I have performed a countdown from one hundred
prob is
is that having counted down to one I have this deceitful habit of demanding a recount 😄

yes! I AM mad!
yep great poem Keith



Rose 💋

Comment is about Waking moments (blog)

Original item by keith jeffries

Graham,
Thanks a ton for sharing this, it's magnificent!
"hopes are rags in paper bags," what a line!
And I loved the ending lines too,
"if you would only measure me
dear saint, angel, lover, please
a fool before a poet, you say
is so much easier to please"

The lines that hit me hard were,
"I'm begging at your window
mistakes strewn around my feet
those I couldn't bear to face
lie littered in the street"

Thanks again,
This is a masterpiece and it surely helps😊

Comment is about Changes (blog)

Original item by Manish

Hello, Manish and David )

Observing the interplay of raw ideas with the words chosen to abstract them can be stimulating. Though, it's like a feedback loop which is dynamically almost outside of my control. Depending upon the length at which I wish to explore, I usually end up in a place pretty far from where I began, and it's certainly not guaranteed that what I've expressed is coherent when I
get there.

Thanks for the comments and for all those who made a gesture of appreciation 🌷

Comment is about ..on earth as it is in heaven... (blog)

Original item by Landi Cruz

Manish,
here's a very old dream poem from 2014 to illustrate how convoluted they can be:

I stand pleading at your window
baying to the hollow night
a puppet on my left hand
a cracked bell in my right
I know that you won't recognize
the pastiche that I've become
hopes are rags in paper bags
my confidence undone,
I'm begging at your window
mistakes strewn around my feet
those I couldn't bear to face
lie littered in the street
if you would only measure me
dear saint, angel, lover, please
a fool before a poet, you say
is so much easier to please

Comment is about Changes (blog)

Original item by Manish

Thank you Penguin and John,

that "Awkward" line stutters somewhat Penguin but can be manipulated after a few readings, it was supposed to present a literal obstacle... (as you suggest) maybe to symbolise the hesitations experienced in living such a moment. Thanks for the steer on my error, much appreciated.

John, you are spot on with the "Bucket" analogy...life goes on. It's hopeful to believe that even the darkest of souls is missed by someone. When it comes to grief and mourning I often feel the mourning is for the people we might have been that we never became as much as it is for our lived lives.

Unfortunately I live in a property that doesn't even have a supporting beam that could effect my occasional desire. My demise would not be a private affair, little dignity in that thought eh?

Thank you for your reading and valued comments.

David

Comment is about Suspended (blog)

Original item by David RL Moore

Mike,
I well remember the Vietnam War and the horrific photo of the girl in your illustration. One word comes to mind after reading this formidable poem is Why? Is mankind doomed to be forever slaughtering each other? I believe one, if not the most important one factor which is at the root of conflict is prejudice, The refusal of people to respect the dignity of others and see them as equals. Following the massacre of bombing Gaza how would the world react it was Tel Aviv which was a pile of rubble? Gaza is made up of Arabs, Muslims and Christians whereas Tele Aviv is exclusively Jewish.
Thank you for an excellent poem which I am sure will provoke much thought.
Keith

Comment is about Kim Phúc The Napalm Girl (blog)

Original item by Mike Bartram