<Deleted User> (13762)
Sun 3rd Sep 2017 22:35
well done on POTW Adrian. It has been a genuine pleasure to read your poems since you joined WoL a few months back. I am sure there are many of us here and elsewhere who can relate in some degree to what you experience on a personal level. Writing is indeed a great helper and healer. Never give it up, it's a great journey to be on whatever else happens in life. All the very best, Colin.
Comment is about 'Transient Beauty' by Adrian Metcalf is Write Out Loud Poem of the Week (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
<Deleted User> (13762)
Sun 3rd Sep 2017 22:18
you describe something very beautiful so very well Martin.
Comment is about Rested (blog)
Original item by Martin Elder
Thank you, Colin, very kind.
And thanks to Frances for the like.
Comment is about November haze (blog)
Original item by Lynn Dye
Martin, sorry as I should have said logophile. Keith
Comment is about Martin Elder (poet profile)
Original item by Martin Elder
Martin, your poems Rested and Books are the best yet. I like your style and presentation. I am a logophobe, so addicted to books. Thanks. Keith
Comment is about Martin Elder (poet profile)
Original item by Martin Elder
<Deleted User> (17552)
Sun 3rd Sep 2017 16:32
Thank you for your kind words about my poems, Keith. I read yours titled 'the Morass' and find your rhythm and image choice like that of a movie. It all tells a story that's complex but also intuitive. I look forwards to reading more of your works in the future.
All the best,
Adrian
Comment is about keith jeffries (poet profile)
Original item by keith jeffries
Thoughtful and thought provoking in equal measure.
The vast Soviet (as was) Empire managed to keep such
a monumental tragedy from the wider world, with many
beyond its borders preferring to believe in the idea of
"world socialism" and dismiss whatever emerged as somehow impossible...not unlike the attitude to stories
of Hitler's death camps until the mind-numbing reality
was exposed beyond any doubt. In short, essential
decency was deceived by depravity beyond description.
Stalin and Hitler were similar in many ways but there have been numerous other corrupt abusers of their
country's higher ideals and hopes.
Pol Pot and Idi Amin are better known specimens but others have been busy across the globe. South America
has had its own share of tyrants trampling their people's
future - literally to death.
Comment is about Memorial Day in Moscow (blog)
Original item by Richard Hartley
Good one Ray
It's always interesting to watch urban pigeons in particular, there some what complicated mating ritual with their feathers all puffed out to some how entice the female which rarely seems to work from what I have seen. She seems to usually get fed up and fly off.
Nice one
Comment is about PIGEON POST (blog)
Original item by ray pool
Beautiful poem Adrian it seems to have all the natural rhythm of a song. I look forward to reading more of your work. Congratulations for POTW well deserved
Comment is about 'Transient Beauty' by Adrian Metcalf is Write Out Loud Poem of the Week (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
We have to break away from the revolving repetitive sequential events that inevitably end in violent confrontation, by accepting that the EC's example of economic and political cooperation is the only sensible way toward stability in Europe. Our membership of the EU since the early seventies has enriched the quality of life for most of the member states including the UK, together with an accumulated frictionless seventy three years since 1945
The cost of living has risen considerably since the electorate (minds tainted by old fashioned Imperialistic reactionaries) voted to leave last year and will continue to rise, chasing a pipe dream't impractical, isolationist, independent, behind the times, future.
In a country that depends on foreign investment to prop up failing industries. The only successful 100% "british" export to date. Is our language.
Comment is about M.C. Newberry (poet profile)
Original item by M.C. Newberry
Arresting poem, congratulations Adrian.
Dom.
Comment is about 'Transient Beauty' by Adrian Metcalf is Write Out Loud Poem of the Week (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Hi David The truth can hurt and can also wake you up lovely words better out than in loved your work Wendy x
Comment is about Calendars clocks and snapshots (blog)
Original item by David T Jones
Thanks Lynn,
Sorry I took so long to come back to you. Only just returned to the site after a bit of an absence.
Yes, it was written about my wife.
Thanks again.
George
Comment is about Beautiful Love Poems (blog)
Original item by George Stanworth
Thanks Colin.
Yes, I can't remember the number of times I have impressed myself with a difficult pot and then missed an easy pot over the pocket. I think I once potted from brown to black to get a break of 22. Not sure how I did that though! Thanks again, George
Comment is about I Potted A Long Red (blog)
Original item by George Stanworth
Thank you Keith.
Comment is about Calendars clocks and snapshots (blog)
Original item by David T Jones
David, Thank you for this posting. The penultimate stanza is not only beautifully worded but so very true. Thank you indeed. Keith
Comment is about Calendars clocks and snapshots (blog)
Original item by David T Jones
Ray, Wolfgar and Keith
Your kind words overwhelm me and I'm most grateful for taking the time to express your thoughts so fully.
Please forgive me for thanking all of you in one joint message rather than individually but I am - quite frankly - humbled by your positive words.
Richard
Comment is about Memorial Day in Moscow (blog)
Original item by Richard Hartley
Richard, thank you for this sombre expose of a dark and murderous past. Poetry must increasingly be a vehicle to speak out on issues of justice. We must not content ourselves with descriptions of nature, although they have their place in this genre, but to speak out loudly and clearly to remind the world that the horrors of the past can be so easily repeated. This magnificent poem serves a valuable purpose in achieving that end. It is also worth noting that few countries can escape such scrutiny. Thank you indeed. Keith
Comment is about Memorial Day in Moscow (blog)
Original item by Richard Hartley
MC., Thank you for your comment and words of trusted wisdom. Keith
Comment is about The Twilight Years (blog)
Original item by keith jeffries
It is hard Richard to deliver news like this when there is so much to complain about in the world, but this certainly ranks highly in terms of protest on a controlled and peaceful level. Countries have to deal with their monstrous leaders in retrospect, and this simple ceremony may serve a purpose by trickle effect as it were. Whether or not it resonates with today's leaders is another matter.
Thanks for posting.
Ray
Comment is about Memorial Day in Moscow (blog)
Original item by Richard Hartley
I recommend "Beyond Nab End", an account by William
Woodruff of his move from the north to London in
1933, a working class lad aged just 16 in search of his future. His progress from a docklands iron foundry to Oxford and a university education, with its political
and class associations as war approaches, is hugely
stimulating. Take his recall of comments by Sir Alfred
Zimmern, political oracle and occupant of the Montague
Burton Chair in International Relations - on the subject
of international relations.
"Moving human beings about and obtaining mutual understanding between them is, however, a problem of
an entirely different order.
Neither international socialism nor international capitalism
can bring about world unity. World systems, whether we
like it or not, go against the grain of human nature.
Those who try to build a heaven on earth fail to understand human nature."
Fascinating to realise they were stated so long ago!
As for war, WW1 happened because of the desire of the
Kaiser's Germany to rival the might of maritime Great Britain. WW2 happened because a political reaction
against the restrictions of the conditions imposed by
the Versailles Treaty became mired and corrupted by
the hate-fuelled ambitions of a German leadership
once again driven by expansionist ambitions.
It is ironic that when it is argued that the EU represents
a step towards peace, its existence is seen by the likes
of Russia as a collective threat, whilst its open border
policy elsewhere has allowed instability of an increasingly
dangerous nature to occur across the continent.
Human nature continues to be the simple problem but
the answers are becoming increasingly difficult.
The population in the UK needs no huge influx from
elsewhere to maintain its future - as long as it is able
and ALLOWED to determine that future.
P.S. Woodruff survived the war as an army major and returned to academic life, writing numerous well received books along the way.
Comment is about WAR CHILD (blog)
Original item by ken eaton-dykes
Thoughts on the future are always relevant and when
expressed as cogently as these, they have particular
resonance.
"The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" -
are words most of us know but they move in two directions -
towards a sun-filled Shangri-la and back to a comforting
chair within reach of a cosy fire or a welcoming pub amongst the fond and familiar.
To paraphrase some older well-known lines in support of
the latter, showing that such thoughts are by no means
new:
"Go take your place among
Those who were lads when you were a lad
When all the world was young."
Comment is about The Twilight Years (blog)
Original item by keith jeffries
Being ugly confined my promiscuity to the hands of SS (safe sex) Madam Wrist
Comment is about Promiscuity (blog)
Original item by Harry O`N eill
Thanks Harry for your wonderfully crafted backup. Is there not time still for us codgers to cobble together some sort of veto against all this madness.
Comment is about Harry O`N eill (poet profile)
Original item by Harry O`N eill
Many thanks Keith for your comment
Yes it's a great pity people don't appreciate the many aspects that make up the bigger picture. They are unwittingly fertilizing the growth of intolerance.
Ken
Comment is about keith jeffries (poet profile)
Original item by keith jeffries
A well put and timely reminder, Ken, of how (after a tragic and costly war) The E.U.was created to prevent the same thing happening in Europe again...Their experience that the cause of modern wars was national ambition, and their insight that prevention lay in the mixing of the industrial and commercial sectors of the various nations is now
being proved by the pathetic attempts by Davis to leave, and yet still hold on to the economic benefits of membership. It makes us look like the old idiot boy, sucking his thumb and wondering why the rest will
not play with him.
Your sections about babies is also very relevant at a time when already over thirty per cent of our kids were born - last year - to mothers who were themselves born outside the U K. and we want to send back - or stop coming in - our human stock replenishment....Talk about a whole
Nation dying of old age!
I am an admirer of the American political system, which holds together so many potentially quarreling states (and which is quite capable of controlling a maverick president) I think something along such lines may be eventually developed for Europe. ( In the meantime it seems crazy to
get out and leave Germany and France more or less in charge of one of the most powerful trading blocks in the world)
The present situation could not be described better than those final two sections of your poem (not to mention that crafty rhyming of `resurgents` with `emergence`)...Keep on giving it to them straight!
Comment is about WAR CHILD (blog)
Original item by ken eaton-dykes
Phew! Thankyou for expanding on your earlier comment, Cynthia. I feel hugely reassured!
I'm very grateful that you have taken the time to think deeply about something and then the trouble to put your thoughts out there to be read.
Very much appreciated.
Richard
Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)
Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas
Looking forward to meeting you in Sale in November. And, no, I don't think 'drunk'; doesn't quite fit the furrowed brow theme.
Comment is about Joe Williams (poet profile)
Original item by Joe Williams
Just a comment, Richard. In no way a rebuke however gentle or delicious. The word 'orbit' came up in a comment of your own, on another poet's work, or Bio page. And it gave me pause for thought. Partly because I've been a bit sensitive to exactly your point, mulling it over a bit on my own.
I realize interchange between poets can be, or not be, totally private. Yours wasn't. So I didn't feel intrusive; I like to see what other writers have to say about certain poems, or about anything at all.
Comment is about Richard Hartley (poet profile)
Original item by Richard Hartley
<Deleted User> (18118)
Sat 2nd Sep 2017 11:05
Hello Keith,
Thank you for your comment on my poem. It means a lot.
Hannah
Comment is about keith jeffries (poet profile)
Original item by keith jeffries
Ken, thank you for this masterly poem which is certainly borne out of experience and reflection. Both major conflagrations of the last century should have taught us some valuable lessons but as you say memories are short. One factor frequently overlooked today is the lack of emphasis placed on the teaching of history. As George Santayana said, ¨ Those who cannot remember the past, are doomed to repeat it ¨. Thank you indeed for this. Keith
Comment is about WAR CHILD (blog)
Original item by ken eaton-dykes
<Deleted User> (13762)
Sat 2nd Sep 2017 08:24
I think sixteen was about my highest break George. I blame the specs. I know that feeling of potting a long ball though. Usually followed by missing an easy next shot. Made me smile this one. Cheers, Col.
Comment is about I Potted A Long Red (blog)
Original item by George Stanworth
<Deleted User> (13762)
Sat 2nd Sep 2017 08:20
yes a great ending - glad to see everyone is resisting quoting Monty Python!
Comment is about The 2nd Parakeet (blog)
Original item by gavin turner
Hi Harry. Hope your safely back in your rut.
Him in North Korea wouldn't be so belligerent if you and I had international bus passes.
Comment is about ken eaton-dykes (poet profile)
Original item by ken eaton-dykes
<Deleted User> (16099)
Sat 2nd Sep 2017 02:46
you deserve so much better than that Lynn but I know you already know that....
Comment is about GENDERS (blog)
Original item by lynn hahn
Thanks Stu for dropping in and liking this one. It was originally based on an old man falling asleep in the wind, but I thought this treatment would have more impact so ....
Ray
Comment is about LATE SUMMER WIND (blog)
Original item by ray pool
An (as usual now) belated thanks to all.
if I ever get the patience to crack the music thing (some
hope!)...I`ll tack the (remembered) tune on to this.
Comment is about Promiscuity (blog)
Original item by Harry O`N eill
Hi, Ken,
My worlds a bit mad at the moment so only saw your comment on my prof tonight.
You are absolutely right about your deterrence effect (I always wondered how those Koreans wrought up their courage...now I know - sheer opportunism, as soon as they found out that we were demobbed)
I`ll tell you what as well... If that big fat pig in charge there now ever comes over...well slice him into a million little bits with our pension cards.
Keep the poems coming!
Comment is about ken eaton-dykes (poet profile)
Original item by ken eaton-dykes
Fri 1st Sep 2017 20:49
Hi kevin,thanks for the comment. I used to watch Vincent Price,Christopher Lee
and Peter Cushing in the Hammer Horror films. An innocent kind of horror if there is such a thing.
Comment is about Boogeyman (blog)
Original item by DESMOND CHILDS
quite brilliant ray. and that is all i have to say as it has all been covered
Comment is about LATE SUMMER WIND (blog)
Original item by ray pool
Thanks Martin for picking up on my poems World of Wheels and She loved that Cardigan.
Glad you like them !
Ray
Comment is about Martin Elder (poet profile)
Original item by Martin Elder
Here in America they, ignore the root cause of this violence.
They haven't learned, stay home and mind our own business.
Comment is about Humanity (blog)
Original item by steve pottinger
Thank you steve, Japanese Haiku. Early 20th century american form of ancient Basho. Father of Haiku.
Comment is about The Whale (blog)
Original item by terry l shuff
Very eloquent and the poem reaches the parts that we all feel at some stages. We need to feel connected to a greater whole. I can't subscribe to the "we'll never be good enough mantra and that we can be saved from that." We are all though addicted to life and its needs and temptations and why should the devil have all the fun.
I certainly believe we can will things to happen - another story. That must surely make us stronger and not such a burden on religion, which has enough problems of its own.
A great poem Laura.
Ray
Comment is about Congregation (blog)
Original item by Laura Taylor
That was an awesome turn of events!
Comment is about The 2nd Parakeet (blog)
Original item by gavin turner
Tom Harding
Sun 3rd Sep 2017 23:53
thank you all...!
Comment is about In Another Room (blog)
Original item by Tom Harding