I Thought I Was Different
I Thought I was Different
Mum’s lined face,
Slightly smiling
Thus betrays
Inner feelings;
Buried rage.
Never, I swore,
Never for me
The pain, the torment –
Long shadows I see
Casting dark clouds of loathing
Over every last reach
Of faint hopes of
A calmer, brighter day.
I thought I’d escaped
Those hurtf...
Sunday 28th February 2010 6:10 pm
Also by Dorinda MacDowell:
The Two Sides of Pride | A Little Touch of Heaven |Dinner With Alison Ennis' Parents (Not The First, But Definately The Last)
Dinner with the teenage in-laws was always such a delight.
New, exotic food
and none of your beans on toast pish,
it was chicken kievs all 'round.
But, on this day
it was different.
You see, whilst Mrs E was slaving in the kitchen
I was thinking of another chef
I just couldn't remember his name.
I tried
I tried
I tried!
I just could not remember h...
Sunday 28th February 2010 5:23 pm
Villanelle of Clifford's Tower
For nine hundred years we’ve turned our faces
From wretched York– the gesture marks its shame,
Concealing this greatest of disgraces.
The city no longer now embraces
Its son of York – Malebrisse was his name;
The citizens of York turn their faces.
He urged them baying with swords and maces,
A screaming mob intent to kill and maim
The brethren – the di...
Sunday 28th February 2010 1:33 pm
Also by John Coopey:
The Battle of Stamford Bridge | Piggies | The Plays of William Shakespeare | Will He Come Back With His Tail Between His Legs? | Cliffords Tower 1190 | Caesura |New poem: Notes From A Dying Taxpayer
I'd always wanted to see Africa but
BANG
I was born at a starting pistol
Risk all?
No need
It's all set out crystal clear
Heed the fear
It's pure instinct
Keep busy
Keep your head down
Like rabbits building warrens
A life of tunnel vision
Listened to everything I was told
You gotta grow up
Or there's no point in getting...
Sunday 28th February 2010 1:09 pm
Grey Magic
Sunday 28th February 2010 12:19 am
Also by Dave Dunn:
Man Still Ponders | Blue Planet | This Life will Pass Swiftly | Hellections | Palestine... | Roses Are Red |JAZZ POETRY NIGHTS LONDON
Jazz Poetry Nights at Pangea Project, Stoke Newington, London.
Opposite Morrisons, ST PATRICK'S DAY, 17th March....
1-Jonny Virgo: Hip hop artist- promoting his new CD
2-Ira Menin: Italian R & B and jazz singer (pictured right)
3-Brother Niyi: Afro Beat poet and percussionist
4-Ogmios- Local Stoke Newington hip hop poet
5-Tunes Under Fire- Free jazz guitar and sax...
Saturday 27th February 2010 11:52 pm
Blood Ties (Part 1): Death in the Fog
Like the catarac wasted eyes of an old man
I walk the night alone and fearless
the frozen air clings to me like a dead lover
I am not a candidate for crime.
Those who roam these streets after dark
Know better than to steal from me
I am notorious, feared. A creature of the night.
So when I see you birthed from the haze
A smal...
Saturday 27th February 2010 9:51 pm
Also by Steven Kenny:
The Art of War | Thoughts on Travelling | Need. | 3rd Day | 2nd Day | Only Child | Give Yourself To Me | On Guernica | In Between The Raindrops | Light | Ennui | A Day At The Beach | Outside the Box |night terrors
I thought i was dreaming.
The light that crept under the door was shifting,
someone was there.
A sudden creak, out there, startled me
and i drew my knees up for protection.
Pleading silently, to no-one, to myself.
As he came around the door,
silhouetted by naked light,
my heart sank.
I wasn't dreaming.
Saturday 27th February 2010 9:08 pm
windy day
The wind’s busy today.
It bustles and hurries
flipping bin lids
as it goes.
The wind’s forgetful today.
It rushes past me,
can’t remember where it’s going,
turns back
and rushes past me
again.
The wind’s playful today.
Stripping the leaves off the trees
to leave them naked.
The wind’s chatty today
laughing and giggling
...Saturday 27th February 2010 6:53 pm
Also by Ann Foxglove:
delft | loving you | the heart it smells of iron | Dance round the kitchen - it's Sunday! | cold feet | Ladybird Ladybird | WRECKING BALL | fox dreaming | Cornish Holiday | Gemma | Valentine's Day Blues | Chinese new year poem of the highly sexual rabbit and the ill-matched dragon. | egg | collision course | Love and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance | BIKE | avocado | unrequited | coromandel | Wolf Rock | bath time | JESSIE | The Candle Game | Botany | masturbation song | incantation |I have seen Elvis in my mirror...
I have seen Elvis in my mirror.
Not the blue-black-haired sexy Elvis:
piercing eyes, taut skin reflecting the neon of a setting southern sun,
but the other one.
Fat, pig jowled.
cheeks like slabs of something dead.
Eyes like fish,
surprised to be set in something quite so bloated.
Left in a jar too long.
My lips hang loose
as if too tired to ...
Saturday 27th February 2010 10:25 am
Also by Rachel McGladdery:
Protection Poem | Poppy - Columbine - Tortola. | Death Comes To Fleetwood | Ronan Kitting | My Dead Dad | Dead Language. | For You. |lamp light
Lamp light
This morning
The street lights taste fiery,
Warming deep,
The burnt orange sauce
Powering me with energy.
Wind beats a steady maraca shake in the bushes
Drumming power into each step,
I hold its force
With tightly clenched fists.
In the darkness
Between each glistening luminescence
Pavements harshness ricochets feet hi...
Saturday 27th February 2010 12:54 am
a plane themed poem
THEY WERE
They were boys going over the top to die
in their tens of thousands in the mud of the Somme.
Nazi youth best in the world bar none,
proved wrong over wide steppes of Mother Russia.
Hurricane pilots fighting Japan over Ceylon, Burma, Imphal,
lost pilots barely 21 made men in lonely cockpits.
Red Chinese boys laid bare bone bloody
against Yankee lines, hu...
Friday 26th February 2010 5:50 pm
Also by NICK ARMBRISTER:
based on some events... | a horror poem | mad poem2 | a mad poem... | oh la la lol! | poem, new, has some of my women shenanigans from today in. |CHRIS WOOD (after his appearance at the Westy)
While listening I couldn't get my head round the fact
that Andy played drums with the Spice Girls
that Robert used to slide his trombone outside hospitals
that Barney takes his cello to open fields
and that Chris (who released his first solo album in 2005) failed his 11+.
The generous sounds are being driven in a 4X4
to Mars where the electric motor (it's ...
Thursday 25th February 2010 10:41 pm
Also by Rodney Wood:
I WANT TO TELL YOU ABOUT A MAN |Grail
Thursday 25th February 2010 12:02 pm
Also by Marianne Daniels:
The House Outside and Other Stories | Wallpaper | Photograph Mafia | Albatross |Cigarettes
You cling to me
In my hair and clothes
Through my teeth
Burning the back of my throat
Filling me
With your sweet sick scent
You make my fingers itch,
It wasn’t the same when you went.
I know how very bad you are
I want you
Thursday 25th February 2010 11:03 am
Also by Emma Robinson:
She Waits in the Dark |Birdsong
Birdsong
tweet tweet not twitter
Birdsong
dance of death
Birdsong
ashes to ashes
the fire flames
birdsong
I rise I rise.
Thursday 25th February 2010 3:44 am
Also by Beulah:
To TC and the loud writers | Valentine's Day- A Little Folly | Me Myself and I----A Mermaids Song |pest inspection
10am on a wednesday
off sick from work
feels like there's a
cheesegrater
in the back of my throat
if you have educated nostrels
you could smell remnants of hashmoke
making yr nosehairs tingle n' sway
bong is hidden, ashtray stashed away,
(as per the smoking ban 1st july 2007)
the plants in my windowsil are all dead
plucked rotting leaves and stems
are stacked...
Wednesday 24th February 2010 11:49 pm
Also by owen calvert:
husk of dust |some men treat women like
Some men are like animals
When it comes to love.
Depraved they crave women
Eating them up like cannibals.
Some men are hopeless romantics
they see love as an escape from monotony
They want a family and wait for the right woman to arrive.
Some men are cowards they hide from love
Because they can’t stand rejection.
They have no strategy
I fall into that cat...
Wednesday 24th February 2010 5:50 pm
Also by Daniel Hooks:
The watcher | romantic distance |Shakespeare Poem
Here's a poem about William Shakespeare, inspired by the play I've been writing about. It would be interesting to know what you make of it. In these days of Internet piracy, I still think it's relevant.
Wednesday 24th February 2010 3:38 pm
Also by Alain English:
Second Skin Theatre Blog: Rehearsal Record 18/02/2010 | Second Skin Theatre Blog - Interview with Director Andy McQuade | Second Skin Theatre - Cast Interviews | Note on Blog Entries | Second Skin Theatre blog: Interview with Don Fried | Future Gigs |If I Could
I look at your face
Small and innocent
And my heart bleeds
For what this world
Will do to you.
I want to wrap you
Close in my love
Hold you safe
In my heart
Throw a shield
Around your innocence
Guard your preciou...
Wednesday 24th February 2010 12:07 pm
Also by Cate:
Let`s Hear It For Music |About Jamaica
He lights his cigarette, I prepare to share it,
just so his lungs could see less tar.
He’s in a reflective mood; I can tell by the way
the flame emerged from his lighter
red and tenderly squirmed like a worm in a furnace.
He holds my gaze as the flame faints back in its tank
drags on the cigarette, slowly tilts his head back.
I ever tell you the story about the mang...
Wednesday 24th February 2010 9:08 am
Viento Norte
I would whisper the wind
to tangle your locks,
to tease your hair into a web
that entraps my fingers
that entraps my whispered wishes.
Let your hair be a tapestry of
my words
words spoken as your mouth
is watched,
watched while I whisper the words
to you.
I will watch your mouth smile
the words
and let the Viento Norte
whisper t...
Wednesday 24th February 2010 1:35 am
Also by Tommy Carroll:
A degree of separation: A degree of change | I see the future |The Reluctant Volunteer
My dad, no hero, didn't look
for punch-ups. When the call came
he signed for the pay corps.
But the look on his face
sometimes got him into bother.
He couldn't quite stomach the drilling,
or hide what he thought
of the shouts, the how's your father,
the moustache and tiny eyes,
the whole bloody rigmarole of the sergeant major.
One night in ...
Tuesday 23rd February 2010 8:37 pm
the secret
the secret is wonderful, beautiful, cute as can be
what would they say if telling them "I love you..." in my own way
how can telling them without embarrassing them of the feelings the heart has for them
its impossible to control the emotions with the feelings inside
deciding wether if telling them would be wise
would they laugh or r...
Tuesday 23rd February 2010 6:09 pm
Also by JEFF.W:
which one my dearest? | the meal | what shall i have? | to be..... | doing my bit.... | four wheels and an engine | the sign.... |Time at your Disposal
I've now edited a little and made a couple of changes with due thanks for the feedback.
Earth revolves on its axis
tumbling snow on forgotten lands
Solar kisses melting ice-caps
flooding plains and barren sand
forging rivers : enriching soil
feeding crops in another
forgotten land
Remember how it was before
evolution can save the poor
...Tuesday 23rd February 2010 10:44 am
The Life-Cycle of a Firestone
Wow!
We see a Firestone
see how it stays.
It’s thoughts are secret-whispers
to it’s facts.
A speech act!
It writes them down in others-
a mirror
a Mobius-strip.
‘It’s not half the story by half’
it says
with air
intoned as prayer is.
Stores as an appendix to memory
as though it were cutting for...
Monday 22nd February 2010 1:48 pm
Snow place to cone
Snowplace likes home
Home like snowplace I know
Fireplace replace ice space
And snowplace in this cone
Take the particle of this icicle
And know your own home
A rash, a thaw…freeze-frame
Crows claw
Snowplace likes thaw
In this eye-gravel of frost
Hand becomes raw
Tears become acid
Breath becomes more
Heavy pulse in the crunch-step
Th...
Saturday 20th February 2010 4:03 pm
Also by Moira Eribenne:
Midges in my head | You gave me flowers.. |The Loneliness of the Long Distance Poet
In a crowded Kilburn pub
minutes before the gig,
the ache sneaked in.
I’m squirreled into a corner,
nested down, trying to order
scattered thoughts
into precise columns.
It isn’t working.
As I sip sparkling water
my eye is drawn outside by
a green Ford Focus
crawling across the window.
My spirit teleports home;
an...
Friday 19th February 2010 5:16 pm
The Man With A Cloud For His Head
The man with a cloud for his head
Had a face that constantly changed
and morphed
and transmogrified.
But sadly, one day, he was killed
by a zephyr.
Thursday 18th February 2010 6:37 pm
Communion
Communion
Grayly, unfocused,
I left the highway for the graveyard
Of the summer corn;
Away from bizarre headlights dissecting
The wet twilight,
Into the sharp stubble where
A dank wind rattled the bones
Of harvest.
From the invisible grass
A mottled rabbit with drooping ears
Padded around the puddles
And disappeared again
Into...
Thursday 18th February 2010 5:10 pm
Also by Cynthia Buell Thomas:
Vanilla Sex | Children of Despair |I Watch As You Become A Woman
I watch as you become a woman
Shedding your girlish skin before me
I stand at the bar, ordering our drinks
And I melt, as you're easier now
Confident and comfortable with everyone
Such growth since those teenage years
Carrying yourself as a woman does
You pick me up from the office
Still in your laboratory scrubs
So articulate and so composed
While I slump my twisted, wir...
Thursday 18th February 2010 11:54 am
Also by Tom:
One of Us Was Right to Leave |Renewal
She stood there, alone.
Stripped naked, bare, fearful
of a solitary stare.
Frozen momentarily on the threshold
of that first tentative step,
out of the warm embrace of the darkness
into the soulless glare
of an abyss of nothingness.
One, that stretched endlessly,
inviting yet threatening.
Filled with bright infinite possibility,
darkened by the hidden...
Wednesday 17th February 2010 1:29 pm
Machino ( A Sestina)
My uncle leaned towards me, marble teeth
Piano keys, his face too tight, too round,
With trembling hands, I took the glass machino,
Into which I gazed with awe and wonder;
Whirling wheels and shiny cogs all turning,
Driven by a coiled bronze spring and sprocket.
Mesmerised for hours I watched that sprocket;
Its gleaming metal polished razor teeth;
Power fro...
Tuesday 16th February 2010 8:29 pm
Climate change change
Climate change attitudes change with the times
Though 'The Times' still maintains we're warming up
The East Anglia emails seemed to chime
With sceptics' views of a big cover-up
Manipulation of data let slip
By a concerned hacker; now it's out there
Suspicion that vested interests corrupt
The science; banks sniff floating in the air
Carbonated bubbles: they want t...
Monday 15th February 2010 7:27 pm
Letting Go of the Lotus Flower (14\\2/10)
A flower in the darkness;
You chose the light not me.
Little did I know,
I would find myself surrounded
by words of another language.
I dwelt in my cave
You hid beneath your garments;
Yes, we were right for one another.
A poem for you, my darling
in a form you should recognise
But all the same, no superior emotion
Love no greater, no mor...
Sunday 14th February 2010 9:25 pm
Defense Of The Drunken Poet
Sunday 14th February 2010 8:19 pm
Going Tits Up
He thinks she’s great but she’s a cheap shot slag
Leaves my flat smelling like a tranny’s handbag
Since upgrading to a D cup she’s far from shy
Put your silicone away Love, you’ll have out my eye
This image of his perception is a total farse
She’s even rougher than SuBo’s arse
I want to be wing girl and set him up with a beauty
I miss us high fiving when he scores wi...
Sunday 14th February 2010 5:08 pm
Detective Novel
There was nobody else here
the body said
without leaving any clues
like a detective novel would.
There was no cold murder
with the thrust of
a steel knife
and no silent voilence
that stung in the night.
This body lay there un-found
with a zen like silence
for long than it could remember
staring at the moon-light
the sun-light
and then the moon-light again
fo...
Sunday 14th February 2010 12:52 pm
Fate's favoured hand
I'm sure I told this to all,
Beneath the grey-silver sky,
I knew what the cost would likely be,
Forsaking all for the path to be free,
But, to this day, I'm not sure why.
The midnight sighing wind swirls,
In the red-gold orichalcum world,
And of all the natural splendours here,
That someone could hold me most dear,
I feel deeply humbled, the least to sa...
Sunday 14th February 2010 8:45 am
Also by Joshua Van-Cook:
A killer above the law |The Syllable Sestina
SYLLABLE SESTINA
I haven't posted anything for a few days because I've been busy with this new craze - The Syllable Sestina, which I first saw on Tiel Aisha Ansari's blog
She of course is brilliant at them, you only have to read her regular sestina's to find the depth and breadth of her capabilities.
Sunday 14th February 2010 2:25 am
Crazy week, 4 gigs in 3 days...
Gigging this week at
RAW GEMS (30 mins) Zenith Bar, London
BEAT, Peter Parkers Bar Soho, London
Rich Mix with Apples & Snakes & Featuring with TV Smith at the Poetry Cafe, London
Get in touch if you're in town.
I'll do the poem in the audio attachment here as well as my current 'hit' as here:
Boy Toy
I’m happy to be your plaything
A am your sex toy
It ...
Friday 12th February 2010 10:49 pm
Feelings on my car being broken into
Emasculation would be too good for the little bastards
is the immediate feeling
followed by
Flagellation would be too good for the little turds
The birch, the stocks, wonderful ideas
Why did we get rid of them?
But
There's always a but isn't there.
This is actually getting me nowhere
Beating the air
chasing shadows
wasting venom on boys
on their ...
Friday 12th February 2010 12:17 am
Also by Dave Bradley:
Hospital | Kids in a cemetery |Upon The Quality Of Love
Romeo Romeo - where for art thou Romeo?
Speak that I should hear your voice, rejoice
that deafened ear should hear you call my name…
_____________
The quality of love is not defined,
yet trippeth from the tongue with gentle ease,
to each and every one of us a meaning
as fickle as the feather on a breeze
Speak not to me, I pray, of star crossed lovers...
Thursday 11th February 2010 2:19 pm
Also by Isobel:
WRITE OUT LOUD OUTSTANDING POEM FOR JANUARY |Third Sonnet
The Taliban of Christianity,
Are guardians of our nation’s moral health,
Protecting men from femininity,
They worship pomp, and privilege, and wealth.
They disapprove of how and whom we love,
Deny our civil right to earn a crust,
To work in schools for our Lord above,
Those bigots trample freedom in the dust.
No paedophiles then, in the Church of Rome?
In Opu...
Tuesday 9th February 2010 1:05 pm
The Tree
Once this fine tree graced a forest.
Natures noble green giant.
Birds nested and played amongst the leaves.
Searched for insects in the tough brown bark of the tree
Safe and secure in its green canopy.
Whilst berries and nuts in abundance during summer
Sustained many, through the harsh cold of the dark winter months.
Squirrels lived aloft, high above the...
Monday 8th February 2010 10:32 pm
Christian Act
snatched away that Christ of ours
how dare they hold his name
the four by two, the horn ed beast
mired in the finance game
do not degrade the grace of God
you evil, bitter brood
now pay the price, and darkly skulk
your pratices pursued
children of the Satan go
and wear the golden sign
too many centuries have passed
long now you've had your time
hide the beards, confine y...
Monday 8th February 2010 5:33 pm
Also by Christopher Dawson:
Sundae Afternoon | Regale Regalia | Hidden Joy | G'day Fromelles |Poem 'Airborne' (Sang by Antony Owen & Jacob Roberts)
In memory of Private Jeff Doherty of Airborne Parachute Reg.
Monday 8th February 2010 11:14 am
Claw and Bloody Nail
I wear my Fathers temper
Like a belt
Tight about me
A
Fight about me wherever I go
I wear my Father’s second sight
Looking both left and right
So that I might know just exactly
Where you have been
And
Who you’ve seen
And
More importantly
Where all of this is leading to
Suspicion
Oh
The agony
Raw
Claw and blo...
Sunday 7th February 2010 9:39 pm
Also by Gus Jonsson:
A Thousand Oceans |What Makes a Man King - Zweluthini
What Makes a Man King – Zweluthini?
We loved you from way back
In history, revered your warriors and your wives,
We demonstrated outside international embassies,
During days of Apartheid,
We loved your culture your history
And traditions,
We envied all of Africa for its Peoples,
That love is still within our hearts
...Sunday 7th February 2010 6:30 pm
Also by Noetic-fret!:
Those That Can; Teach. | Balkan Winter |
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