Hi Ray - Not sure about your message of the 1st November just
read. My only recall is of a purchase way back and that seems to
be connected with my message seen in your list of messages dated 7th February last. However, I will go to my Paypal
account, not least to check payments in general - and come
back to you. Cheers, Mark

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Hello lovely man, how are you? I hope you're managing to keep your chin above water after the longest hardest winter I've ever known.

Much love to you, thanks for dropping by and taking the time to read and comment ? x

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Hello Ray - I sent you a reply via WOL about obtaining an online
copy of your photobook, but have not received a reply. Did you
receive it?
Cheers,
MC

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Hello Ray

I finally got round to putting the Essex poem on the blog!

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Hi Ray! Have to catch up on your writing, as it is always well worth it, and I have missed a lot. Been in the throes of trying to manage Zoom for teaching, -webinars, courses and tutorials on Utube. Some of those spoke such weird English I needed the text!!!! One girl kept on talking bout the Zoom 'porrl', and being notoriously thick, it took me a few minutes to realise she meant the Zoom Portal!!!!! The tragic thing is that I am supposed to be teaching English! Hope you haven't been Copvided even in a minor fashion. Am getting really bored with not being able to go anywhere much, although one shouldn't complain, when one thinks what the hospital staff are coping with. Here more than 700, doctors, nurses and paramedics died in the spring go.

All the best, Jennifer

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Thanks Ray.... If I hear "We are Sailing" ever on the radio I throw it out the window... same goes for "Don't Cry For Me Argentina".

I have a hate from those days... The BBC. They announced we would attack Goose Green and the Argie moved 1000 more men into positions, same with their ordinance, their bombs were not going off, loads of ships were hit including mine and the bomb failed to explode, they were fucking up the timing on the detonator. The fucking BBC actually announced that... next thing you know Brit ships were blowing up all over the shop.

My other piece of anger is Colonel "H" Jones 2 Para (VC). He shouldn't have been there, he was "Sunray", Battalion commander, his place was safe back with his maps and radios and tea. Instead he took it upon himself to assault Argy machine gun positions across very open ground, I've seen it, and eighteen of his men and him got killed. "Sunray is down" over the radio left two Para headless, the one man with the whole battles cape in his head played the hero, lost and left his Battalion leaderless, he went against military doctrine and training. Had he lived he should have been court martialled! I was told by a 2 para combat medic he had two British rounds in his back. Someone had sense.

Fortunately Major Chris Keeble was his number two, ex SAS and a brilliant soldier, he was able to get a picture, put things back together and won in the end.

The other thing no one ever mentions is the Argentinians were disgraceful, they literally shit everywhere, in Stanly they shit in drawers, cabinets, wardrobes, in all their positions in the field, it took ages to clean up that filth. I don't know why but they did it.

Everyone thought the Argy pilots were real heroes, they couldn't fly at full speed couldn't manoeuvre, they were so low on fuel if they got caught up in heavy manoeuvring to dodge missiles and aa fire, they would run out of fuel on the way home, this made our Harriers look far better than they were! In fact it was two Harrier pilots told me that. Everyone respected them because despite that, and their heavy loses they just kept coming.Amazing courage.

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Hi Ray - apropos your comment and its inclusion of Grenfell Tower on "Sutures and Futures", it has been given a racial slant by a black QC at the current enquiry hearing. How easy it is to make this type of
aspersion - as if the emergency personnel might have agreed to
some "selective" response! No positive recognition that a valuable
portion of social housing in central London seemed occupied almost completely by those originating from outside these islands rather
than those in need from the indigenous English/British population.
The tragedy originating in one of the flats seems to have allowed this to be overshadowed and ignored. Something about road, hell and
good intentions comes to mind.

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Hi Ray - the Venner name in my family appears to have a history in
the Essex(Havering) area so, who knows? there may be a distant
connection. The name itself has variations - like Fenner and Vanner,
that go back centuries when spelling was hardly a precise exercise.

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Hi Ray, back from the dead!!! Not quite dead funnily enough, but flu - whole family even with the jab. Then Christmas with shopping /cooking etc. When I needed them, my computer, dishwasher, and washing machine all went on the blink, (that phrase is a bit of a giveaway)!!! Then to top it all my ..!!!!!!!!!........... husband fell, (entirely his own fault, I say nastily), cracked several ribs, and has behaved like a grizzly with a sore head ever since! As if that wasn't enough, had to cope with a son's legal separation. Whew!!!!!!!
Any way all moused up again and ready to go.

Liked your Masterplan one, but what fell deed or deeds is it referring to? Problem is I can think of so many!

with affection, Jennifer

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You are always a delight!

I'm 'not with it'. What does EFIT mean?

If I knew how to do it, I'd post a black and white photo of myself at twenty-five. I know you'd enjoy it, as I do yours: the older person shining through youth.

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p o r t r a i t

by Tommy Carroll
Wednesday 20th November 2019 9:52 pm

Cheers Ray

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follow your wife's advice-
you can't go wrong!

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Ray you are correct. I stand corrected. Correction is the side-street to drunken doorways.

?

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Indeed Ray indeed.

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"The grindstone that wears a man into a polished version of himself."

Excellent Ray.

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Thanks for the comment on Love Me it was I wrote it after a hip operation

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Thank you Ray - Nut Hatch - appreciative of your kind comments. P. ?

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Thanks for the comment on Cooling Towers, Ray. Very much appreciated, as always. T

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Hi Ray, thanks for comments on El Dorado: dodgy is in there, best
Dom.

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thanks for welcoming me back (again) Ray - glad you liked True Nature. As usual - you totally 'got it' ?

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Hi Ray - you didn't say when you made a visit to West End Central
but the descriptions seemed to match a certain time. Who knows...if
you'd visited its opposite West End number up the road in Marylebone (just off Oxford Street) we might have met !!! A lot of
water has passed under the bridge since those days but the memories remain.

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thanks Raypool. ?

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Thanks, Ray, for your kind words on 'Man on a Wire'. David

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Truely Ray
"The grindstone that wears a man into a polished version of himself."
Is most beautifully put.

"Waiting..."
and
"school holidays..."
quality.

(is that an Alan Benett...voice?)

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you get your coat.
I'll get your goat!
?

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Hi again Ray! About Nihilistic Poem- only just clicked!!!! Confess to being a 'cabeza di cocco'. Had a laugh anyway. Jennifer

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Hi Ray! so sorry about all the fuss over 'tiredly'. I didn't read your comment, but I would have thought it was quite normal to suggest it didn't exist - np at all.
Loved your 'Genesis' am still seeing the despairing face beneath the ice - such an unusual image. Will get nihilistic when have time, or start quackling - if easier!
By the way, things have picked up, I would say - referring to the graffiti period.
Jennifer

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Tech is easy
if you're young-
if old
it only adds
confusion.

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Thank you Ray - for all of those words - Ymmot

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Thanks for reading and commenting on my poem.
Always good to hear from the cool Raypool!

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Hi Ray! Thanks for the 'Grimm's Fairy Tale' comment. Must be the awful weather we are having that has brought out a morbid streak!
Have another couple of 'Grimm's' coming up! The papers/TV have also been full of the most appalling murders/killings recently as well.

Jennifer

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Ray, I wanted to say thank you for all the comments you've made and support you've given to me on this site. I don't respond much to many poems/poets (my issues), but in all my time sending stuff up here, there are a number of poets whose feedback I value greatly. Thanks again.

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Hi Ray! thanks for the very positive comment on Hopeless. Glad you saw something in it. I was doubtful whether to post it or not, as it was more a word game than any kind of poetry. I really can't bear to think about not having somewhere to go on a freezing winter night. I was in the ER at the hospital in December, and there was a homeless man I know, 'cos he is always outside our local supermarket. He is at least 65, and was just trying to get through the night somewhere with heating, but they turned him out eventually. One feels so ashamed, even without being directly responsible.

Jennifer

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before you fall
catch yourself.

thx for visiting.

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thanks for your comment on "Ghost Town".
I appreciate your reading it.
As much fun as writing it.

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thanks for the kind comments on 'In Memoriam' Ray - yes, I guess we all reach that point in life where we are losing friends and relatives more frequently. I'm glad that NaPoWriMo has kick started me back on WOL again - I had 3 or 4 months off doing other creative stuff - but this has given me a much needed kick up the backside to get writing again.
Glad you liked it mate
Ian

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Hi Ray, thanks for commenting on "How to be a terrible parent", your thoughtful feedback is appreciated as always. How come I missed before the fact that you were a professional musician? (I'm a failed professional musician).

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Cheers folks re (My Bookshelf): Ray, Don, Martin and M.C.
I think I may have failed in my attampt to be ironic lol. And now I have lost the point that I was attempting to make - oh the irony of it all. ?

Tommy

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Cheers Ray, I'm thinking the same - ?

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Hi Ray - welcome words re "Schemata" welcome.

Thanks Tommy

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Cheers Ray, yes I know 'Jarrow Song' well, it's one I remember being played in the house a lot when I was very young.

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I love the poetry of Donald Trump.
I hear America singing.

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Thanks for your kind words on "spring" Ray. I surprise myself with my optimism sometimes.

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what exactly did Jennifer mean when she said
"keep your pecker up"?
is that an olde English expression?


?

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Hi Ray thanks for commenting on duality. The American is a woman whose unwavering total commitment to the afterlife that I just couldn't grasp. But she was such a good person living a good life.
She was honest in her beliefs and I admired and respected it.
In many ways envied it.

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Thanks for your comments on "tonight" Ray. Its a strange world to live in sometimes. I'm a great fan of Camus and I hope he would have appreciated this too.
Sometimes in social situations I find the banality hard to deal with, I know what you mean about feeling outside. With the urge but no capacity to be quite "inside". Thanks again. Phil.

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Just wanted to say I like your work, Ray.

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Thanks for your comments on "pub". Sometimes life just swirls around us barely do we have control. I subscribe wholeheartedly to the absurdity of life as we live it. A kindred spirit is always welcome. Many thanks.

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Glad you enjoyed reading it.
I enjoyed eating it.
Love those Tex-Mex enchiladas.

Thanks for visiting.

?

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Hi Ray. Thank you. Yes the sarcasm was barely concealed wasn't it. But so many poems have words and no emotive drive. We can all write words. Thanks again Ray.
Best.. Phil.

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