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The Sea At Night Does Not Rest

Too tired to rest
I only care
Are you out there somewhere
A glass of cheap wine
On the arm of some expensive chair

And do you...
Could you think of me sometime
Maybe... while I'm still alive

The gravity of your movements
Swells the tides of my emotions
And you'll probably never know
You draw me to ecstasy, then to lowest ebb
And you'll probably never know

You ...

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Also by Tom:

Cinema Child & When I Leave The Cinema | Letters To Old Lovers | Held |

curled as a shell

 

Curled as a shell curls

Pale opalescent nacre skin

Pearlised in a moonbeam.

 

Her neck curves gently

In seahorse shape.

And round her face,

pearled,

Sea anemones coil.

 

A foetal-angel

With body turning

As the wave revolves.

 

 

Shooshing waves will never wake her

Sharks sharp teeth will never take her.

Dreaming deep, whe...

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Also by Ann Foxglove:

new twenty pound note haiku | falling in love by surprise | groove round the kitchen - it's SUNDAY!! xx | pussycatdreaming | slumber | love to the blood and bone | maelstrom | a pinch of salt | lifemodel | for ta-ta | lost pebble | alfresco | morse | unfathomable | pink | OFFSIDE | gone |

Fragments

The gesture takes shape in the shavings of the sky,

swooning pregnant with a mouth of dreams, and the rapid eye

believes.

 

She waits on the day with her fingers,

trimming the water, visiting his shoulder

in the breeze – hair, lips, and collarbone, blushed,

 

and, pilgrim like, her memory invents a body,

whispering the leap of the burnt lake, the sun ice-skat...

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Also by Marianne Daniels:

The Famished Asylum | The Art of Judas | Prom Night | The Sculptor |

The Tour

The once lardy lad from the Isle of Man

aggressive in the press because he can -

the evidence suggests pocket a win

in as many sprint finishes as nine.

The coveted pink jersey becomes him;

no better assertion of macho man

then to wear that prized colour with aplomb.

 

From the parliamentary democracy

Of Luxembourg, Andy Schrek I forsee

As contender for fi...

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Also by Alison Smiles:

Climber boy | How? | Ordinary |

The Long Crawl.

Sluglike and heavy, weary of percentages

Rolling slowly on rough carpets of winter green

Rainfall aftermath damp and blanket atmosphere

Moving by the metre just after sun shower

'Little insect journey'

DONT LET THE GIANT FOOT FIND ME

The concept of scale is a cage in itself

'Little insect Auschwitz'

Chained to the radiator calling for god

 

Crawling in a ...

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Armed

Narcissus stared at the art work

before selecting a martial sleeve.

A fusion of Japanese gangster

and Polynesian tribal.

 

Hand function was straightforward.

Ranging from tea ceremony

to stone crusher,

crocodile wrestler

was the choice.

 

She thought her bank authorisation

into the machine

and dropped her old arm

in the recycling tray.

...

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vending machinetattoodeathGreek Myth

Your Eyes

 

I'd like to take a look at me
Through your eyes.
I want to see what you see
When you focus on me.
 
Do you see a friend?  A lover?
A confidante?  A brother?
Or do you just see me,
Just another random other?
 
I'd like to see what you see
Maybe then I’d understand
Why you just don't notice.
Why don't you notice me?
 
I'd like to t...

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Also by Steven Kenny:

In the Blood | Stunted | Gentleman Caller | The Nomad | The Greatest Show on Earth | Blank Regret | Creampie Jesus | Memorial | Philosophy Through Confectionary | Lamentation from a Field of Broken Dreams |

Love doesn't know any taboo

 

Love doesn’t know any taboo,

but sometimes it doesn’t know what to do.

Sometimes it cries, sometimes it lies,

sometimes it looks like  a sly,

sometimes it shouts “Hurray”

and it ruins everything on it’s way.

Love can be crazy, love can be lazy,

it can be like an angel

and it can shine like a purl.

It can turn everything upside down,

it can change ev...

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Also by Larisa Rzhepishevska:

To live on the real life rails | I love you | Just close your eyes... | Spring meets summer | I am one of those..... | Two souls | A letter from the 20th century | If I am strong | I like to live my own life | Falls and flights | The power of love | A PARABLE ABOUT A REAL WOMAN | It could be so nice | How much we would like to say... | To the Creator | Love me as I am | Humour | What is love? |

love

Junk-Pot-Lady

A weird title for deadly drugs

Inhaled, injected, or smoked

Widely abused, damaging the brain

Heroin, marijuana, and cocaine,

Addiction affect user's ability to sense pleasure

And may contribute to depression

They think, dream about it, constantly

Become irritable and confused, increasingly,

They are sold at head shops, nightclubs, and rave

Threatening teenag...

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England Exit Haiku

"Great Expectations"

Then "Pride Comes Before a Fall"

"Les Miserables!"

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Also by John Coopey:

Research |

How To Fix A Broken Man

Today is thoroughly sad-sick.

She is in the garden picking peas,

I’m in our wardrobe, masturbating, slow.

 

Sandalwood sneaks around the house,

Frank revolves from another room

as we prepare for tonight’s repair.

 

I am a lover in her reality

but a liar in her dreams,

a big pumping heart on legs

that beats to the sound of love’s drum.

 

Where...

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Are you Listening ?

Look at the world,

lost tribes seek freedom,

lost in the desert,seeking shelter when the heats on,

the streets on fire,like,

no mans safe,

cant even put your faith in a familiar face,

too many issues, running out of tissue,

at the funerals,

go to clubs, man are shanked at the urinals,

and i aint even about to make out its beautifull,

when what im seeing's...

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I Was the Reluctant Lover

 

I was the reluctant lover
She was a Goddess divine
I was not as brave as a man should be
And so her heart was never mine

Oh, am I the fool of legend
Am I the only one
Who loved and lost as I never tossed
My hat in the ring till the girl was gone?

And as I look at the picture
Her face...

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Also by Tomás Ó Cárthaigh:

For the Corncrakes Sake and Mankinds | Just Because They Once Were Victims |

loveamoreadoreamiciwomanunrequited lovepassioninfatuation

Free downloadable Spoken Word (poetry-reading) EP.

 Hope you enjoy it!

http://raymondantrobus.bandcamp.com/album/raymond-antrobus-spoken-word

Ray. x

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Spoken Word poetrySpoken WordpoemRaymond AntrobusEPreadingLondon

Crixus' story

A commodity caged, he fell to his knees
Dominus ruled and he wanted to please.

Bought for no more than a handful of coin
sent to the dungeons, the others to join.
A brotherhood forged from fear and regret,
his future unknown, his dreams were beset.
Trained by the whip of a battle scarred cur,
his might was impressive, his cost more than fair.
To the top of the arena he killed...

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Also by Kath Hewitt:

My affliction. | Finality | Footie haiku attempt | From organism to organasm | Reaverman | my attempt at jackie hagans challenge thingy | Look out, there are murderers about. |

The Poet as Piñata

I knew it was a bad idea. I was guilted into it because it was for “Charity”. Just how bad an idea it was only became apparent when I set foot on stage. For every second of my two minutes or so, a drunken, howling, baying mob heckled and jeered my every word.

 The “it” was a local version of Britain’s Got Talent (I know!); staged in a pub/night club at 10pm on a Sunday (I know!!) on the nig...

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Tiptoe Through The Tulips

Tulip fields as far as the eye can see

and beyond - Generations

splicing.. dicing...bonding

Exporting a seasons creation

for pleasure and for peace

Securing a life for future families

 

and as the crow flies

four hundred miles over land and sea

 

there is a place

where victims go willingly

to play.. befriend.. communicate

with mammals of a di...

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Dolphins Of The Cove

 



In the cove the dolphins swim, 
blowing bubbles, free of sin,
all their play is full of joy
no rough stuff do they need to employ


Perhaps that's why they give us such delight,
leaping from the water as if taking flight,
summersaults made in unison quite unsurpassed,
all our own gymnasts are quite outclassed.


A...

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Also by Dave Dunn:

New Rules Of Sobriety | Last Generation | Lora's Woe | War Losses |

EcologyHumanity

Volunteers, Workshoppers & Open Mic-ers wanted for LitaBury

In conjunction with Streetwise 2000: Bury’s Fun And Free Literacy And Learning Festival For Everyone!

Monday 23rd August 2010
11am – 5pm
Bury Parish Church House (Behind The Church)

Come along and enjoy……

• Writing Workshops with Rachel Bond, Darren Thomas and Elaine Speakman
• Kids’ Activities with Gemma Lees
• Poetry Open Mic With Write Out Loud (Compered by Paul Blackb...

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Fugue

two menorahs loosen

memory's chains

and restore the past

at last,


 

here in my head

dark star's velvet scream

is heard but

never seen

leave  the poor

as they were before

footsteps in the snow

 

 Paris 42

and the Gestapo

perform another round-up,

and a seemingly innocent Jew,

Paul Leon,  just visiting,

is tossed into a Mercedes

hard,

...

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the speed of life

I am just a body
I am just a mind
I’m a collection of skin and bones
And beneath the sky I find
The heat is on both sides
The sun on my front
The sands heat on my hind
Now I know why animals bask
The speed of life these days
Has took as all to task
We have forgotten how to relax
We have grown fins and attacked
I hear grass whisper
Waves collapse
Such the simple and t...

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She Loved Sundays

Taking both of my hands in hers she leaned forward

kissing me softly upon my cheek.

 

'I've had a really lovely day today

I love Sundays

 

How about you’?

 

I smiled a broad beaming agreement

Lying should never be easy

I'd never found it difficult, but then I was well practised.

 

I had always agreed.

 

 

I had always agreed.

c...

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Elsewhere

I grew up in a country of

                        fish & chips

                    & 9 to 5.

With jet back hair and dark skin

I stood out sorely at school,

                                at work,

                                in the street.

 

I longed to visit that place, elsewhere,

Which my parents always spoke of.

The place where I would fit in.

...

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homeculture

Vacancy

A small nose, full glossed lips,

Eyes of cornflower blue.

Petite figure, slender hips,

A gaze that looks right through.

 

Expression bored,

My items are wrapped,

My smile ignored,

Confidence sapped.

“Thirty-one pounds then.”

The girl can speak!

She yawns again,

Concentration weak.

I see before me

A pretty young thing.

What does she see

...

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Also by Lynn Dye:

They Ride Together | Just Like An Angel | The Angel and the Beachcomber | ARILLAS! | She Rides Again |

Things We don't write about

Things we don't write about.

 

We won’t write poems about wanting to Kill David Cameron

(although Gordon Brown did bore me senseless)

Nor do we write poems about the recent cuts to benefits

And the whole way the country is still mismanaged.

 

We won’t write poems about rising crime

And why unemployment is really rising again

Without looking at ourselves and ...

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Ice Cold In Shallow Waters

                                    Ice Cold in Shallow Waters

 

 

 

            We live in a discordant world

Where metaphors of peace,

Battle daily with analogies of war!

In every man and woman tempests rage,

While considering daily their norms,

            (norms that make all;

            Actors and players on stages

            Of rhetoric,

 ...

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Also by Noetic-fret!:

Poem to the Unknown Angels | Darnhill Estate | Where is the Man Upstairs? | Angel Fire | My Wife and Child | Theatre of Space | Disjointed | Harmony | Value | Kruger National Park |

Reeling

Clouds

lazy drifting

shape shifting

rain gifting

spirits lifting

 

Sky

gulls wheeling

world ceiling

vast feeling

mind reeling

 

Space

planets sailing

comets trailing

stars failing

chaos prevailing?

 

Beyond Space

order reigning

reality maintaining

never waning

always remaining

 

love training

 

Read and leave comments (5)

Also by Dave Bradley:

Ten into Five | In praise of Rights of Way officers | Pandora (late again) |

This Sunday...(Poetry Performance)

Poetry N Motion
Opal Bar
Embankment
London
Right next to Embankment Station on the Northern and District Lines.

Sante with her new Album release.
Goodtimes Trio with there old skool review
Megan Gibson with her new skool grooves
Roger with his soulful Italian style
Ayo - Poet
Alain English - Poet

As well as various other performers (singers and poets)

Please joi...

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Also by Alain English:

New Featured Gigs | The Fantasticks - Show Review | New Gig | FEATURED GIG THIS SATURDAY 5TH!!! |

Water Into Wine

We found you

plastered to a concrete drive,

acute angled, feet drawn,

rapid breathing

beneath a hot baked sun…

 

You’d landed somewhere hostile,

a dad, ruffled by things that flap,

children unversed in basic care.

And so we scooped you up,

took you to our hearts…

 

No-one sent a rescue helicopter.

The vet, disinterested in your plight

advi...

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Also by Isobel:

Write Out Loud Outstanding Poem for May | WOLOP NONINATIONS - MAY | 10 into 5 | Pandora's Box - Review |

12/02/10.

In fields

On kitchen floors

Behind closed doors

I'll remember those kisses

In fields

On kitchen floors

Behind closed doors

You're holding my hand

Singing all your usuals

In fields

On kitchen floors

Behind closed doors

I'll keep the feeling

You set in my stomach

Close to my heart

In fields

On kitchen floors

Behind closed doors.

...

Read and leave comments (1)

INDEX OF LAST LINES

 

A moth squeaking like a dog's arse.

A warm smile in the afternoon.

And afraid of the sound of footsteps.

And him with a pigeon on his head.

And neither does the dog.

And spends most days swatting flies.

And there's so much I'll never sing.

Before taking a deep breath.

Being herself was never an option.

Covering themselves with night.

Deep inside his...

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Also by Rodney Wood:

A COLLECTION OF ONE WORD POEMS | I HAVE CLEARED THIS SPACE FOR YOU |

Wild

Myself and Alison McCabe are organising this amazing night of fab women writers including the wonderful Clare Shaw, Meriel Malone, Jackie Hagan, Steph Pike... and ourselves! There will also be an open mic slot, so women bring your writing!

It's on Fri 16 July, check out the gig guide if this image is too small to read the details. Cheers.

Please note, we had to change the venue, it's no...

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Sapphic Stanza


Hear the faint chimes


Sapphic stanza: 4 lines - consisting of 3 lines of 11 syllables each  (hendecasyllabics)  each measured in the same  strictly prescribed feet - /,///,,/,/,  and the final prescribed line using 5 syllables - /,,//

 


Hear the faint chimes, music of nodding bluebells,

Tinkling-glass tones trembling on restless breezes,

Soundless ...

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Also by Cynthia Buell Thomas:

Spenserian Stanza |

do i want a tattoo?

i must do

i won one

Frankie owes me one

bar code back of the neck?

no thanks

stars in a line above the ankle bone?

no ta

bird on the breast?

no no

do i want a tattoo?

i must do

i went up to collect my prize

rang up several guys

until they confirmed

i could come at any time

arrows saying this way up?

i don't think so

love and ha...

Read and leave comments (0)

Instant publication

I was on chauffeur duty for my daughter at a JLS concert last night. Whilst waiting outside, the following cruel yet accurate haiku came to me:

Flightless moths wobble

their way, to the bright white light

of the burger van.

 

I sent this to a friend on Facebook and within about 20 minutes it had been scooped up on to the "Haiku In English" website, without so much as a word ...

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TAKING A FLYER

 

 

(The ‘Liar flyer’ is now accepted in politics.)

 

The concept of integrity hangs slack

now Westminster’s dishonour is complete;

our politicians creed: “I’m alright Jack”

as in that feudal Chamber they compete.

Election time comes round - the party-mind

hones strategies to make a devil blush

with weasel-worded messages designed

to give that extra s...

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Fathers Day

 The type of man that makes my blood boil

with hair as shiny as foil

eyes that stare right through any human being

and as tall as the celling

 

he overpowers me with his masculinity

and demands "what is this i see in front of me"

sorry sir it was an accident

i didn't know it was your pride i would dent

 

he fills every pause in my speech with a yeah

a...

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Also by Josh Coates:

The Colour Red | Accidental Afternoon of Poetry | Oddest Couple Paired | The Homely Feel | Dearest Sister |

Relativity (m.c.escher)

Our eyeless stares, the endless stairs constrain;

Figures of proportional intention,

We blandly trudge from plane to transformed plane.

 

Warping up and wefting down in vain,

Aching for a canvas of convention,

Our eyeless stares, the endless stairs constrain.

 

Incidental in some artist’s brain;

Ageing embryos in mock pretension,

We blandly trudge from pl...

Read and leave comments (3)

Also by Dave Carr:

World Cup Haiku | World Cup Haiku | The Future is Crimson |

EsherVillanelle

Displaced

I sleep beneath layer

upon layer

of blankets,

stand for hours under

running water,

trying to feel the heat

but still,

I am cold.

Cold and torn,


from the threads

of your memory.

Scents drift by

on the wind,

and I try to grasp the dust.

Echoes of sounds,

music and voices,

haunt me,

taunt me, but


all is darknes...

Read and leave comments (3)

Also by Deborah Jordan Bailey:

Carpathian | The Dunes |

Keef Richards

Here's a little dedication poem to a man i'm sure has touched all our hearts, been in all our hospitals, played all our stages, nicked all our drugs and blown all our minds:

 

Let me keep this brief

How did you do it Keef?

Be a fucked up raving junkie

And then still be rocking n funky

Cracked you head upon the floor

Drained the fluid and still did a tour

Nearly f...

Read and leave comments (0)

Keith RichardsRolling StoneJack Pascoe

droning light afterswagger

droning lightsculpture
chequered office hub
towering
above the lavalamps
at streetlevel;
morphing hazeglowers

strangled by snakewires
whaling
a last smoke filled lungful

dot to dot 21st c. birdseye view

***

headscratching suitwearers are
hyperventilating
placing spare change out of order
on the dusty gritridden pavements
hiding
their sweatsoaked suits
...

Read and leave comments (1)

World Cup haiku

A vuvuzela

up Mark Lawrenson's backside;

it's what he deserves

Read and leave comments (5)

Also by Greg Freeman:

What a Wonderful Game |

vuvuzelaMark Lawrensonfootball

Clive (the plug monster)

There is a monster that lives in my bath,

Well… sometimes he takes a sojourn to my sink

and has been known to holiday in the loo!

A greedy plug monster is he, scarfing down bath water and eating waste matter,

he is not discerning and will take what you offer.

Soap and bubbles, stubble and hair, he belches angrily.

He swirls the water this way and that

controlling t...

Read and leave comments (2)

The Long Stretch

A grey-purple night,

From the city centre to home,

A long stretch,

Both in distance,

And of imagination,

As closing-in buildings,

Crept out from grey rooted shadows, 

The glare of headlamps,

Juxtaposed they gathered,

Congregating with myriad intents,

The space between them; a snare,

Ensnared and entranced,

As nearer and nearer they came,

Tight...

Read and leave comments (0)

Also by Joshua Van-Cook:

Detachment |

Central Hospital

A knowledge of History and English Lit

was as good as a torch or a candle

on the mazy staircases and corridors.

The front wards housed the acute admissions,

Jane Austen coupled with Thomas Arnold,

those but lately troubled or giddily hurtled

in and out of revolving doors.

Sense and Sensibility wed Muscular

Christianity; exemplars and guidance

for the minds ou...

Read and leave comments (4)

New poem: Gluing Together Burnt Toast Crumbs For A New World

Ladies and gentlemen!
Roll up roll up!
The world as we know it is ending
crashing
crumbling
crumpling
bleeding
like a car wreck engineered by retarded geniuses.

Ladies and gentlemen!
Welcome to the UK!
The spanking, sparkling
uber-liberal, CCTV-ridden,
racist, immigrant-dependent,
calm, ordered, collectively psychopathological
state of now!

Ladies and gentlem...

Read and leave comments (0)

... and where is your God?

 

A tumour on the brain
steals a life, unformed and pure,
a child,
so please don't tell me there is a God
for I would ask you and where is your God
when the innocent are tortured and slain
in his unholy and despicable name?
I would ask you again and again and again
where is your God,
that is neither holy nor loving
but empty, remorseless and vain.
There goes your God
...

Read and leave comments (4)

atheismhumanismresponsibility

Homo World

What if homosexuality was the norm, not hetero-? A straight's 'coming out': Homo World, 

 

 

Homo World

Heterosexuality was unheard of in our town
the thing of New York, London, Manchester’s Mecca
on TV, in pamphlets
relegated to short stories
and Vaseline-smeared-porn. 
Rock Stars and Pop Stars
not everyone. Not us. 
Not in our town. 

Occasionall...

Read and leave comments (4)

Also by Max Wallis:

Modern Love #1 - Texting | Red |

homogaystraightsexlovelustfear

Bruised Toe of Woe

A bruised toe from a birthday past,

The happiest one for a while,

Black and receding like my memories of you,

Wondering if it would ever go,

Then it went too soon,

A new affection now formed for my black toe,

I'm not sure I want it to go,

Too late, it is growing out, like the Doctor said,

A calendar of bodily matter,

My toe a timer,

A barometer of feeling...

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