Hello all. It's my privilege this month to announce the winner of March's WOLOP vote. Isobel will be back next month after her 'break'. Nominated poems were as follows

Scar – Chris Dawson

Mr. Piano – Marianne Daniels

The First to Depart – Ray Miller “painfully poignant and written with a gorgeous flow between great warmth and regret at the passing of the time”

Up the Tops – Rachel McGladdery “wild and sharp, a Ted Hughes feel about it”

Weathering Thoughts – Stella “could have voted first and second simply for Stella's poems this month as two of them were brilliantly crafted and light of touch in their language.”

“A poem about the airforce/sailors who died during the war” – Darren Thomas. The voter couldn’t remember the title and Darren has removed it, as is his wont. “It was beautiful and moved me profoundly”

October Road – Cynthia Buell Thomas “for its rich imagery”

I'm happy to be able to say that the poem with the most votes (on a low turnout) was Ray Miller's 'The First to Depart'. A worthy winner in my view. Well done

Honourable mentions to

Coopey's Groupies (for 'making me laugh')

Guernica Blue - Rachel Bond ('brilliantly conveys the bizarre and frightening nature of the painting of the same name” )

As the Moon Prevails – Kealan Cody

Speak for Them – Anthony Owen

First Communion – Rachel McGladdery

Le Weekend – Ann Foxglove

On the Make – Banksy

Sculpture – Dave Bradley

Beautiful Minds - Isobel

Being asked to mind WOLOP for a month made me think about what we are actually posting. Was the superficial impression that we are sex-mad correct? Are we interested in political issues? What about Nature? The figures below arise from going into 'stato' mode on this month’s blogs with those questions in mind. The categories are subjective and poems were allocated according to my no doubt contentious view on what was their most prominent feature. But hopefully it gives a rough feel for what we are up to.

Romance/Romantic relationships 44
Other Important Relationship 34
Sensual/Sexual/Erotic 14
Broader Individual Human Experience 43
Society/Politics/War 22
Tributes / Eulogies 5
Stories 21
Observations/ incidents which r less than stories 33
Making a statement on a specific topic 20
Self-Revelation 20
Expressing a Mood 10
Philosophical / religious 13
Whimsy / Flights of Fancy / Looking at Things Differently38
Animals / Nature / the Natural World 35
Science 2
Death 17
The dark side 3
Supernatural 4
Prose 5
Words to Music 6
Items posted a second time 4
Unclassifiable 3
News/Info/Reviews/Links 18

I found it interesting that we are just as likely to write something of the whimsy/flight of fancy sort as to write about romance. And death is more popular than the erotic. Though perhaps 'popular' is not the best word.

It seems we aren't very interested in being outright philosophical or religious. We'd far rather tell a story or make an observation or record an incident or get worked about a topic and use a poem to make a statement about it. Our philosophising tends to be buried in poems which are ostensibly about something else.

Anthony Emmerson has won WOLOP in the past and been one of the more prominent and active poets on WOL. We haven't seen much of him recently. Given that he has stood back for a while, I thought it would be interesting to hear from him, with his take on the month's blogs, and here it is -

 

 

March – “in like a lion, out like a lamb?” The trick didn’t quite come off this year; rough winds shaking those darling buds. Good old Met Office. The vernal equinox :

"The first day of spring was once the time for taking the young virgins into the fields, there in dalliance to set an example in fertility for nature to follow.  Now we just set the clocks an hour ahead and change the oil in the crankcase."  
-   E.B. White, "Hot Weather," One Man's Meat, 1944   

 

Blog entries springing up like forced rhubarb, plenty to peruse and choose from; for the gourmet or the grazer. A banquet for all tastes; from the (Curate’s) boiled egg to Barons of Beef. I’ll take your Grace as read and bid you tuck in and enjoy the flavours of this arbitrary selection:

 

This month David Franks “has been mostly eatin’” - http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=9631

 

While for Max Robert Wallis it seems sausages (Cumberland and chipolata) are firmly on the menu -

http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=9612

 

Ann Foxglove offers us a varied repast, from couscous, apple juice and coffee in Paris –

http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=9594

through freshly baked bread

http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=9571

and eels, snakes, slugs and worms

http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=9156

to pure honey.

http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=9554

 

Cynthia Buell Thomas debates the effects of inflation on the price of minced beef –

http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=9570

 

John Togher becomes ill after swordfish at the Ritz –

http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=9567

 

Perhaps unsurprising, given where his hands had been. Maybe John Darwin knows –

http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=9418

as he loiters outside Bargain Booze

http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=9602

 

Kathryn Hewitt meanwhile enjoys the simple pleasures of a chocolate brownie and chips –

http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=9381

http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=9305

 

Dave Carr seems preoccupied with the hips and waistlines of others –

http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=9331

 

Rachel Bond issues a timely warning about sharing sweeties –

http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=9261

 

Thomas cooks up a secret meal for one on an old flame –

http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=9613

 

Ray Miller contemplates wedding cake – for one –

http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=9601

 

Chris Co considers bitten lips and laments a loss of steam -

http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=9575

http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=9312

 

Simon Rennie wonders who did eat all the pies –

http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=9552

 

Augusta Darling conjures up cojones from a bag of pears

http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=9547

and extols the erotic virtues of chocolate -

http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=9147

 

Barrie Singleton mixes alcohol and drugs and gets the munchies –

http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=9525

 

Valerie Cook raises a toast to the WOL literati –

http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=9455

 

Marianne Daniels compares fish and fowl –

http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=9370

 

Dave Bradley goes hungry, due to amnesia –

http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=9392

 

Adam Fish legs it – without paying –

http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=9384

 

While many were obviously tempted to return to Isobel’s “soul-food for thought” for second helpings –

http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=9539

 

And, at the time of writing this, there are still Easter eggs to come. Anyone know of a reliable literary laxative?

 

Thanks to Dave for compiling this month’s WOLOP, and of course to Isobel; without whom WOLOP would not exist.

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Thanks Anthony. I (Dave) am staying in Scotland in a broadband dead zone, so this is being posted from a nearby hill via a dongle. Devotion to duty knows no limits. Is this a first? What other different or far flung places have blogs been sent from?

Back to Isobel next month