a girl like me will meet a boy she loves and instead of loving them,

she will think only of the words she will use to describe them, 

when she writes a poem that night.

i am not ashamed of my soul that i bear whenever i open it.

a girl like me will write about every person she encounters,

and hope that for some reason they stumble upon it,

and spend the rest of their life wonderi...

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i think to be unloved is to be damned. 

for a while i thought myself damned.

can you really be damned at 16?

i gave him two cigarettes this time, 

and offered another two. 

he smoked them till the tips of his fingers burned, 

i wanted to place them on my lips.

suck them, kiss them, cool them.

i sat across from him, nursing one drink, careful with my teeth and my brow.

he...

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oh my stomach! my heart! my chest! 

oh it aches, it aches so it does!

forcing pizza down my throat at a table of my enemies and my best friends.

i hurt, i am screaming at them. 

my eyes, cant you see the pain in them!

am i not as poetic looking as i seem inside my own head?

i wasnt raised by poets, or ones that believed they were.

i always wished one day i would find an album ...

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And in the deep woods the creature slowly crept
The snoozing boys deep in slumber continued on how they slept
Even under the chilly blanket of night the creature's spits warm breath
A sound was made when the twig snapped where the creature has stepped

One boy jumped awoke and examines the surrounding in fright
The boy saw only darkness and the glimmering torch they placed
The boy lays once...

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The man sat in the seat of gold
Overlooking nothing and a place once ruled
The clouds surrounds and fright unfolds
Yet, the man stood stern and cold

He reminisced a period where he once king
Once lived as a scholar, a general, and naive
He lacks acceptance and made somebody do his bidding
Causing somebody to grasp his ability to meet death that the man never retrieved

His majesty dropp...

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A tune surrounds the capacious void and the
Fragments of notes encompasses its niches
The volume abloom in shape; loud and announces
Rhythmic flows that proceeds to shatter infringes

Strain of the melodic tune and the lyrical prowess
Tends the ear with musical frisson
Masterpiece beyond sounds, words, and worthy for Aengus
Tranced, like a sailor to a siren and kept bopping on

As the tu...

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The whistle of the wind
And the fate twisted and twined
Under the dark filled with gems
We made love and made other condemns

Mumbling crickets sang their song
And the croaking frogs composed their poem
The endless sky; glimmering yet bright
With you here feelings were delight

The moment and time stood still
And the world was ours to give
Soft tongue and eyes filled with jewel
Is not...

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Room in dark paint with crumbling walls and hollowed holes
Stares back with its glimmering lights from outside
With the lowered ceilings and sound of bellows
A place fit for safe and a place relied

Crusted floor due to dirt, mud, tears, and blood
Rocking floor and the swaying curtains fuels cry of ballad
Burst of sounds made a powerful gust that shattered glass
A sound that makes its poin...

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Us driving in the unending road
Bouquet of puff hanging in my lips
With you here time slowly flowed,
for, I glanced over to see your mischievous glimpse

A day I deliberately squandered
To keep seeing your glimpse among the waning crescent we pondered
Gust flows your curls and pollinates its scents
Drunkenly devoted without a drink ferments

Lost in time, lost in asphalt
With only stars...

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Dancing in the background of lilac petal
Sapphires surrounds and shined with a vendetta
Gasping the puff of space dust
Walking in thin air, together with the seeping blood lust

Near, yet too far
Celestial bodies barreling towards with no fuss
Words spoken in the pages of grimoire
Unfurled by the curious gust

Synchronized by the effects of cosmic dust
The choreographed pirouette of the...

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Strumming the strings of fate
Moving in maelstrom against the natural order of destiny
As the strings lengthen, I’m in stalemate
To counter, to flow, or to simply be

I stand in the space of the night
Looking up, stars staring back
Looking back, decisions stand for condign smite
Still seeking for the perfect tune by a mere playwright

Choices have been chosen, Decisions have been decided
...

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Imagine freedom being tied

To how far you can run

Be it from a gun,

your mum

Running from expectations

You're acting like a bum

Someone's son

To succumb to banal pleasures

You bum

Experienced pleanty these few years

But yet still

A master of none

The cat has 9 lives

You live to tell one tale

You've been given plenty of opportunities

And yet you fai...

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Tainted words are like shadows

Amid your weak sunny days

Tainted dreams are like the mud

On your black patent leather shoes

You cannot walk towards your hope

Having these sorrowful feet

And with a barefaced kind

Of friend hidden on your mind

Tainted whispers are like a curse

With the promises you've broken

Maybe a thousand times

A sudden storm taints the breeze

...

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i)

Living under a veil of uncertainty one tends to spiral

Denial, Trial and Error the child inside is desperate to come home

Errors and false hopes become tendencies eventually

One and all, once together, all get pushed to the periphery

In a cold winter one tends to call the warm home

Layers that seem adequate we love to deem adequate

A covered fire cannot burn

A covered p...

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I

i'll be honest,
I refuse to love you. 
my chest sits in knots 
even in this revelation
the would-be butterflies remain trampled
and God knows they fly all around him
im not sure they even had the chance
to cocoon, your slime-gripped words
of small flames devoured their bloom.
No. Yes. No, im not bitter. Im selfish. 
I'm greedy with want, a desire-is-me factory of production
I hold ...

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We grow up with fantasies in our head

"Become more", naturally I said

That is all I want for you and I

It was only borrowed time

They were only doing what was in their heads

It IS worth sharing

But can it be?

What am I becoming?

What have I said?

Can someone share this with me? 

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It's occurred to me that I really love the kind of things that represent a beautiful but gentle sadness because it feels like the most accurate reflection of real life and it feels the most like home.

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"i know how to walk from here to there" 

okay, i muse back, 

"so walk through fires with me, walk through" 

i cant. i never have been able to. 

the places that i walk from are the mouths of cavernous houses. 

and from them ive only just realised i can leave.

"i will give you wings and a heart and a lust for the finer things"

good, i need an incentive.

"but you must act upon...

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After all

In the end 

If it was all just one long, strange, and pointless trip 

Then it was at least interesting

And that's the most important thing in the world. 

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Maybe something happens

Which propagates a deep unease

That makes you acknowledge the weight in your brain

And reminds you that you're unwell again

Volumous storm clouds roll in and take hold

As well you sit with your feelings inside your head it seems as though a thousand years drift by within yourself

As you wait for the interminable unrest to pass

Lightning strikes and thun...

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The Bottle

Sometimes it's easy to take comfort from a bottle

Trying to numb or dull the anxiety

A swill of sweet oakey booze to dissolve those feelings one would rather ignore

But eventually, given enough time, and enough drink

One starts to notice that bottle isn't your friend 

It doesn't work

It doesn't numb anything

In fact, most of the time, it boils and churns up and c...

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sitting on a train with my head bowed in a quiet mourning for the couple sitting two seats in front.

or really for me.

i mourn for me, me and my love and its cramps.

im in love, im in love and once more im in love. 

not with anyone but with everyone, or anyone who'd see it through.

then each time i remember that the only thing i want to be is noticed,

someone can notice that, eve...

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It's made the charts at Amazon.co.uk! Top 4, could it rise up more?!

Help a fellow WOL poet out and get your own copy of The Writing Group.

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Love is a strange thing isn't it. Many got blessed by the love as it transformed their lives picking them up from bottom and taking them to the heights of the sky. And for some its a curse that only put sorrow and misery in their lives.

Once someone said something very beautiful about love and who loves the most a man or a woman.

By every mistake a man made and woman forgives just adds ...

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experience is experience of a skill set
to tell of a experience is to tell of a skill set
to tell a tale of a experience is to tell a tale of a skill set
a tale of experience is a tale of a skill set
a skill set is a set of skill
a set of skill is a set of a player’s skill
a player’s skill is a player’s set of skill

to tell a tale is to tell a player’s experience
a player’s experience is...

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Wound up with Love is Clive Donovan's second collection. A pamphlet published by Lapwing of Belfast in 2022.

A selection of poems all about love and its difficulties. Dedicated "To all the girls"

It is said of this book that wherever you are on your love journey you will find yourself on one of these pages.

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Richard Palmer for South Magazine, commenting on The Taste of Glass: "[The poet] is both the observer and the observed, trapped on the other side and her real kiss still tastes of glass. The poet adopts a range of personae...ranges widely in scale...tone too..."

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What they said about The Taste of Glass, Clive Donovan's first poetry collection published by Cinnamon Press:

"A treasure trove of sharp insights and fresh ideas" Clifton Redmond for The High Window

"Mighty powerful stuff" Sam Smith ed. The Journal

"Wild and meaningful" Fred Beake

"Poems of nuance and feeling" Robert Garnham

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the universe is a claim of a claim
the universe is a claim of a stake
to claim the universe is to direct the universe
the future direct the future
the future direct the stake of the future
the stake of the future is the direct of the future
the stake of the future is the stake of a direction

the universe is a direct universe
the universe is a direct claim
science claim science
the dire...

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Merseyside poets, singers and musicians are getting together to perform a handful of events inspired by John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

Organised by Wirral poets Michelle Wright and Barry Woods, the events highlight current conflicts around the world and feature work from their new community anthology ‘Poets for Peace’, which is available to read for free on Facebook.

‘We are u...

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if you show yourself to me 

i will disappear under the vastness of linen filled lines.

i will run through clouded streets until my legs give way. 

if you loan yourself to me 

the farthest hills out yonder 

arent far enough for me. 

the distance to be put 'tween us 

by me, 

must be longer than the wizened vines that grow from your mothers childhood home. 

must be wider th...

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i miss the child i was at 17. 

i miss 17, i miss missing, i miss loving nothing. 

i miss wanting to feel and not being old enough to get it yet.

i miss thinking i was emotionally literate. 

im 19. 

nineteen. 

i am still a baby, a kid, a viriginal chalice not yet ready to be drunk from.

there is no slow down, you crazy child when it comes to me. 

my onlookers wince as i choo...

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am i hungry or has the pit returned.

that stupid fucking pit.

its an eternal loop, circling in and out of itself.

floating dead centre in my gut.

particles of another girl explode and expand out of it, 

overcome by this strange girl from the strange world.

i weep on my mothers lap, 

i retch over porcelin, patterned.

seeing my sister for the first time in weeks, 

she glow...

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the eye of the tiger is,
the eye of a vengeance
the eye of the tiger is,
the eye of a clash tiger
the eye of the tiger is,
the lure of a tiger
the eye of the tiger is,

the lure of a vengeance
vengeance is a lure of a vengeance
vengeance is a lure of a tiger
resolution is a lure of resolution
resolution is a lure of a tiger
a tiger resolution is a tiger lure of resolution
a tiger res...

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youre a good little girl,

he types.

youre submissive arent you, 

he moans, over text.

he expects a beguiled, 

blushing emoji in response.

what he gets is three dots and an empty silence so loud he remembers what he is.

a greasy teen (21 years of age).

a lusty manchild looking for another child. 

he tells me im a cute and submissive girl, 

with luscious milk bags. 

...

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curled on a velvet chair

in a darkening room

is a monstorous teen. 

outside the blackening,

is a fading pink sky.

the clouds within whisper to shepards, 

"Delighted I Hope"

and on the highest grassy hills,

the shepards face eternity.

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Because In those 10-15 minutes of a scene,

I’m not me.

I'm a completely different person, in a completely different world.

A world that doesn’t really exist.

Then reality hits and you wake up from the dream.

The dream that was so real, and so fake.

And you remember who you “really” are…

Or do you.

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The most beautiful part about life are memories.

We can feel them, deep inside our hearts.

See them, right in front of our eyes. 

But most importantly…

We can relive them, as many times as we want. 
 

- M

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one day I woke up
tired of taking the oxygen in my lungs for granted

so now I breathe
deliberately
and as I breathe

so I live

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He came like an ancient prophecy

sparked by the howling of the seasons.

Those who pursued him knew nothing of his arts

They did not see him sewn into the four winds

They did not hear him no matter how loud he sang.

In this time of virus and plague true hunger bares its teeth.

A fierce breaking, a shaking and a flailing

A swooning and a sweating, a cruel fever falling

All ab...

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Your bad hours fizz

in a squirming glass,

and as cheery as they

had previously seemed

you require the waitress to

please change these flowers -

they're fake;

this head, please ... this universe ...

Hope the bellowing coffee

can fill you without any serious

danger of overflowing.

Yesterday

you only needed to pin down

the laughing words;

today you're th...

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check yourself fool
check your judgement
check yourself by judging yourself
pride yourself by judging yourself
pride yourself by judging your judgement
respect yourself is by judging yourself
respect your pride is by judging your pride

to fool yourself is to check yourself
to fool yourself is to respect yourself
respect is to honor yourself
to honor yourself is to honor your respect
j...

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Merseyside poets, singers and musicians have come together to perform a gig for Peace at the Williamson Art Gallery in Birkenhead.

Organised by Wirral poets Michelle Wright and Barry Woods, the event highlighted current conflicts around the world and featured work from their new community anthology ‘Poets for Peace’, which is available to read for free on Facebook.

‘We are uni...

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my soft soles patter over the cold slates that make up the maze of halls im scurrying through.

i am on an adventure, a treacherous journey,

to retrieve a single key for a locked door ive been trying to batter down my entire life.

there are others, winding their ways through the spiralling turrets.

sometimes we even fall in unison, 

our shoes hitting the same beats, on the same beate...

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gracefully i perch on the edge of the bus seat, 

so as to convey my feminine, my eyelashes. 

each time the doors open my posture rushes to fix itself, 

my fringe blown out by my hands running through it. 

when i'm most worn out, 

on the days when the world is dragging its feet,

when my joints tingle with pins and needles. 

to look pretty on the edge of a bus seat is a fufillin...

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My brain is leaking out my nose.

leaving an imprint on the soles of my shoes as I walk on,
it splatters, 
squelching, 
as the birds pitter, patter on,
a minuscule impact behind the larger one.
the sky tilts with me,
f-lling
fall-n
fa-l (how do you spell -alling? i thnik.  ha;ve I ‘forgtten’ HO?W t0 write to )

Click
                      Click
                                     ...

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WAITING FOR MACCA

'Long tall Sally she's built for speed'

We're waiting for Macca

'She's got everything'

At Glastonbury

'That uncle John needs'

Oldest performer to top the bill

'O babee'

Not long now

'Yeaaaaah babeee'

We just can't wait

'Havin' some fun

Tonight’ !

@David Subacchi

June 2022.

June 2022.

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Expectable tracing
a light spreads a fire
a dark at night

red clouds natural science’s task of decipherment
diagrams expend texts reported by the coast

a snap, a rasp, a chatter on the seabed

Onagas castanet in Ginkgo
precursors foreshock zoology
cumbrous seismisms mackerel skies
the scenery blurs
long hairs in the north in Gamelion
Hinoko rainbow between mountains
black, yellow ...

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floating in that acrid pool of nothingness, 

a feather kissed the tip of my nose and whispered softly over my face.

in that moment, decided. 

i watch the village of women who surround me each day, 

awash with a soft awe at their mossy eyes and woolen hands. 

i link arms with the girl i love most on a late night walk, 

running from the boy who asked me to give apart of myself.

...

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