well observed. brits abroad, eh. we're a funny bunch.

kevin

Comment is about Holiday Makers (blog)

Original item by keith jeffries

There definitely could be more added, I tried to come at this poem from one side, but bipolar disorder is multifaceted so I understand what you mean. Thank you for the comment

Comment is about Bipolar (blog)

Original item by Toby Love

Thanks Paul, happy motoring! On a serious note, I just wonder how many old crocs are running on too much medication , some to cancel out side effects . Lordy spare me..

Ray

Comment is about IN AT THE DEEP END (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Hi Toby this is a very good and brave poem, I can't help feeling that should be more. Or maybe that's just me, please feel free to ignore my comment. But either way I love the poem.

Comment is about Bipolar (blog)

Original item by Toby Love

yeah absolutely Harry, the recovery is just taking me a bit longer than I anticipated. Must be more patient. My father always told me I was fidget arse!

Comment is about I am arisen (blog)

Original item by Martin Elder

Thanks to each and every one of you for your lovely comments.

I'm afraid I'm no physicist so don't ask me any Hawking-level questions ?. If I thought about this stuff too long I would have (like Neil in 'The Young Ones') a "negative reality inversion" ?

David, I heard that aliens prefer mashed potato (Smash) and chocolate bars like Milky Way, Mars Bar or Galaxy.

Thanks to you all, you lovely people.

Paul

edit: elP, sorry almost forgot to say how much I ached with laughter at the Patton Oswalt link. I've since watched several other of his YouTube clips which are equally funny. Thank you very much.

Comment is about Spaghettification (blog)

Original item by Paul Waring

Hi Stu,

what screams out from this is the raw intensity of being tortured by grief, and the endless ruminations it might bring and endless questions we ask but can't find answers for. It reminds me of post-traumatic stress.

Very powerful and moving writing.

Paul

Comment is about grief in b-flat (blog)

Original item by Stuart Buck

My doc tells me I need a full service and MOT. I think my engine is showing too much wear, I've started to rattle but, strangely, exhaust still works fine ?

Nice one Ray.

Paul

Comment is about IN AT THE DEEP END (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Bless you matey. Pure imagination this one. If it was real I probably wouldn't have written it!

Cheers David.

Comment is about IN AT THE DEEP END (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Hi David! Glad you enjoyed the puzzle in the piece :)
Thank you for your feedback!

Comment is about Dears and Pleasants (blog)

Original item by rseed

A very fine piece of work Harry that carries us impossibly on to a wonderful conclusion with the mind corkscrewing us on . Fabulous stuff.

Ray

Comment is about Everyone knew but me (blog)

Original item by Harry O`N eill

A balancing act of a poem between hell and high water Rick,
You know I am sucker for your stuff - i'd like to meet you on a dark night. We could meet at the junction of imagination and realism in dark cloaks with wonderful linings.

Ray

Comment is about Twister (blog)

Original item by Rick Gammon

Very good. Almost a rap. I agree with Laura and Graham. It needs to be performed.

Cheers Kevin

Comment is about 2 SCOOPS OF BRAIN. (blog)

Original item by Alexandra K. Parapadakis

If it's true that Putin's Russia was busy trying to get Trump
elected, it begs the question why? Is this the ultimate
in placing power in carefully chosen and supported hands
in a game that goes back a while, with other hands
played and lost, and debts owing?
I'm sure John Le Carre would write a best seller using that
premise!

Comment is about "HAIL TO THE CHIEF" (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Thank you all so much ?

Comment is about 2 SCOOPS OF BRAIN. (blog)

Original item by Alexandra K. Parapadakis

Thanks Graham and Stu for your kind comments.

It was written when I belatedly found out that a girl I had been hopelessly in love with was actually home.

Sadly, she still wouldn`t have anything whatsoever to do with me...But what the hell!...I wouldn`t have missed the experience for all the world!

Comment is about Everyone knew but me (blog)

Original item by Harry O`N eill

Thanks Harry for your views - you have given me fresh hope even in stagnation; i'm not quite up to salvation.
In the words of the comic: "it seems like only yesterday we got married; I wish it was tomorrow, i'd cancel it."

Ray

Comment is about MARRIAGE VOWS (blog)

Original item by ray pool

I enjoyed the song very much

Comment is about Rewritten (blog)

Original item by Maria Renea

A fitting tribute to a great poet, an individualist who forged his own poetic path, and never entered a slam (I made the last bit up, he may have done for all I know).

Comment is about Roy Fisher, modernist poet with a love of jazz, dies aged 86 (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Hello Harry, Thank you for your comment. It is something I shall bear in mind. Keith

Comment is about Harry O`N eill (poet profile)

Original item by Harry O`N eill

Well, Harry they are mine - the quotes are there to give the sense of the words being spoken to the character by the duplicitous smooth tongued vipers etc who seduced him.
I fell for the crazy words of a seducer - hook line and sinker - and she oozed that kinda thing. It was sweet until the after-taste ?
She was so unrealistic but I was swept away - hence the impossibilities inherent in those quotes.
I'm not sure when/if stuff like that will pop up again - I often write on 'auto-pilot' then edit away - as I've intimated, I'm no fan of the poem; it made it into me book - just - but I dunno, I'm not happy with it.
Thanks for the positive comment though ?

Comment is about Twister (blog)

Original item by Rick Gammon

Quite right, Harry.
But quite embarrassing for Trump to know that he owes his position as POTUS to the Russians, either through hacking, fake news or blackmail.

Comment is about "HAIL TO THE CHIEF" (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Forgive me, Maria..I hope you don't hate this, but it came to mind immediately upon reading this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_gL27_uIe8

..for the struggle of a woman within a masculine world seems often unfeminine...

elP

Comment is about Rewritten (blog)

Original item by Maria Renea

I do like it, but it also seems to be a bit out of a 'how to write a great poem' textbook. Seems too cobbled together to be treated as a worthy winner of a national competition.

Comment is about Stephen Sexton wins £5,000 National Poetry Competition (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

i'm addressing everyone, including myself. ? it's very much a love-hate thing with the gold stars. i mean the whole reason that I write and create (and I think most people do) is to relate to other people, and you want to know if it struck a chord with someone. but it's easy to get too wrapped up in it and then it loses its goodness. always love hearing from you guys--thanks for reading! LB

Comment is about gold stars (blog)

Original item by Little Bit

Martin,
Ah, recovery!...and equilibrium (and prayer)

Comment is about I am arisen (blog)

Original item by Martin Elder

Ray,
There are worse things than being a solid, well set in the soil cabbage.

(a fly-blown, moth-eaten, blown about, limp lettuce-leaf for
instance...Face up to it man...marry the woman! ?)

Comment is about MARRIAGE VOWS (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Best wishes with both yourself and book...Keep us informed

(That`s what I call dedication!)

Comment is about My new poetry collection 'Undaunted' is published on April 6th (blog)

Original item by Attila the Stockbroker

John,
I find it impossible to believe that the intelligence services of all countries are not covertly trying to hack each other`s e-mail (otherwise they wouldn`t be `minding their shops`)

Comment is about "HAIL TO THE CHIEF" (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

You know, I just had the funny idea from Suki's comment that maybe our universe is in the midst of re-expanding from just such an occurrence of 'falling in'?

I'm almost sure any astrophysicist would say that's a daft idea, but, that's the beauty of fiction and poetic license--we don't have to write the thesis or make the calculations.

elP

I hope you find the following clip as funny as I do..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTaylAABdZk

**warning--adult language ;)

Comment is about Spaghettification (blog)

Original item by Paul Waring

Sunny,
This is like morse-code poetry. it leaves the imagination free to fill in the details

Comment is about Changing Paths (blog)

Original item by Sunny Chopra

Rick,
I see that these two stanzas below are in quotes.

If they are your own, when are we going to see some more of this stuff from you


“Let us banquet on newborn quail,

In a hot air balloon

High over Machu Picchu.”



“Let us sail a stately brigantine

In coats of alligator fur

Through mists of unicorn breath

On uncharted emerald seas.”

That`s poetic imagination man!

(the rest of it is very entertaining)

Comment is about Twister (blog)

Original item by Rick Gammon

Well, Keith, I can't exactly speak for everyone, but the answer you seek may be in the very diversity of which you've written. After all, many seek to destroy whatever they can't control.

But, as Harry says, there are many of us who are thankful to enjoy the beauty of many, many things that are neither like us nor of us.

elP

Comment is about Our World (blog)

Original item by keith jeffries

Stu,
Despite several u tube `listens` I could not `get` the musical reference.

With respect.

I think that (word-wise) this might have worked better if
- after the first two stanzas - the red shoe would have been stripped of most of the (too dense?) comment and left more sparely as a lonely symbol.

I think that, then, that last stanza would have `worked` a lot more tellingly as a finish.

Your strong word-choices are overpowering the intent of your poem.

Comment is about grief in b-flat (blog)

Original item by Stuart Buck

For Pete`s sake keith!
Don`t let on to some of the moaners on here (The ones for whom everything is a disaster) That there might actually be a lot of good - and even comfort - on this earth! (even taking into account your last two lines)

Every single word you`ve written here is true.

(I think - even as a temporarily suffering human being - that the word I`m looking for is `thanks`)

Comment is about Our World (blog)

Original item by keith jeffries

so wonderful....in case you haven't seen Hollie in Babyhood - here's a link... www.vimeo.com/ondemand/babyhoodfilm

Comment is about Hollie McNish's poetic memoir about motherhood wins Ted Hughes award (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

♡♡ I love your work

Comment is about Stuart Buck (poet profile)

Original item by Stuart Buck

Thank you, guys! And, yes Cynthia it was for extra emphasis. Thank you both again.

Comment is about Merci, Monsieur Claude (blog)

Original item by Dyphrent

thank you!

Comment is about Melatonin (blog)

Original item by Maria Renea

I wrote that on xmas day 2015 - ignored by family as per usual - miserable buggers ha ha ? I dived into misery - it felt good until I finished the Twisters ?

Comment is about Twister (blog)

Original item by Rick Gammon

The whole concept of "prize winning" poems seems alien
to me, indicating as it does, the personal choice of a limited
set of opinions (often just one!) as to its value or connectivity. But the money seems available and it shows
that "poor poets" are something of a modern myth, far
removed from the reality of a productive past that even
now finds little to match it for lasting effect.

Comment is about Stephen Sexton wins £5,000 National Poetry Competition (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Rick,

This isn't a dud! I agree with Cynthia. I'm glad its in your book.

Washed down with antacids,
Antacids and tea.

What's not to like?

Suki

Comment is about Twister (blog)

Original item by Rick Gammon

Hi Stu,

Kind of a little gob-smacked by this.

The repetition of swallows swam, red shoes, sirens,
the siren was a red shoe..

Dense with intense image and emotion.

Suki

Comment is about grief in b-flat (blog)

Original item by Stuart Buck

HI WINSTON,
well first of all very thanks for showing interest to my poetry & specially ghazal.

I also appreciate that you know the terminology of urdu poetry...its really commendable

mmm...Actually these all ghazals & poetries are written on my blog https://merejazbaat.com/
if you go there,then you may find a google translator as a WIDGET in side bar.
so by selecting english language..u can see the translation.
but that translation will not be in poetic form.it will be just line to line english translation.

if you want me to translate very line too,then sure I will put the english translation here itself

thanks
AATIF
INDIA

Comment is about POETRY PASSION (blog)

Original item by AATIF

"siling. A word most often used in Kingston-Upon-Hull, North East England, to describe heavy rainfall. Flippin' heck, it's siling down! Where's my umbrella?"

It comes from the Norse ?

Comment is about Twister (blog)

Original item by Rick Gammon

Stu is spot on. Well done. 'peeking pink' is superb.

Do a quick spell check.

I think the first line should probably be: 'Mon cher Claude' but maybe not, if you intend extra emphasis.

Wouldn't say a word if I didn't think it was so good.

Comment is about Merci, Monsieur Claude (blog)

Original item by Dyphrent

You never fail to post a really good 'read' with a lot of suggestive power using some fine referents and great diction.

But what is 'siling' rain'? I'm stumped.

Comment is about Twister (blog)

Original item by Rick Gammon

good to have you back zac (poetry in itself!), i enjoy your writings greatly, they always remind me of bands such as the mars volta, whose use of language as a sharp object, both in tone and in mouth-feel (that sounds pretentious but im sticking with it) always makes me feel something when i read it. as so often with your work, i feel i would most like to read it under the neon sign of a shitty motel at midnight, having drank a litre of scotch to get over a lost love.

Comment is about camidien (03/21/2017) (blog)

Original item by Zach Dafoe

excellent piece of concrete poetry paul. very much enjoyed, using words and space and shapes all in conjunction is a mean talent.

Comment is about Spaghettification (blog)

Original item by Paul Waring

poignant and powerful chris, and that first line is excellent and works well repeated further down. i hope poetrys cathartic nature has helped you in this matter.

Comment is about Suicide’s Beck (blog)

Original item by Chris Armstrong