Hi Ray,
David's comments are spot on. A real lightness of touch; delicate and understated.
Cheers
Comment is about PROUD OF THE PAST (blog)
Original item by ray pool
Hi elP,
Cheers, I have just read the article. Scary but not surprising. We are already living in a Phil K.Dick world. I believe the powers that be have already mastered artificial intelligence, and goodness knows what will happen when that is rolled out - especially when it comes to tracking every aspect of our behaviour. I sometimes wonder whether the only way we can truly save ourselves is by disconnecting from all our electronic devices, but how easy will that be? And to think, the Internet of Things hasn't even got going yet..
Hi David,
Cheers so much! I agree with you. Also, sometimes the bully pretends their communications "aren't real" as an all too convenient excuse to hurt and be as nasty as possible. Nation states now employ people to troll on-line! Also, the complete lack of basic human decency (if that isn't an oxymoron) is worrying. When children take their life because of such bullying, we should all sit up and pay attention. The recipient should take the message at face value - you're right - and I suspect the messenger know that full well.
Comment is about Interweb Counselling 101 (blog)
Original item by Suki Spangles
Thomas
Wed 8th Feb 2017 02:26
As the previous comments have shared already, you did an exceptional job here, Ray.
Comment is about PROUD OF THE PAST (blog)
Original item by ray pool
Thomas
Wed 8th Feb 2017 02:02
What a great poem. John, might you be willing to help a student with a poetry assignment?
Comment is about BREXIT FLU BLUES (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
Thanks so much elP, yes I remember Shari Lewis and Lambchop. Her remark is a good, insightful one. So pleased to read that you have such fond memories of Bob Hope.
Paul
Comment is about Bob Hope Saved Me (blog)
Original item by Paul Waring
elPintor
Wed 8th Feb 2017 00:04
"we blind ourselves with arrows of desire"
I was able to come straight back to that line, even after suffering a minor crash that took about an hour to overcome..absolutely standout..
elP
Comment is about revelations (blog)
Original item by Laura Taylor
elPintor
Tue 7th Feb 2017 23:56
I hoped you might find this article interesting...
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/07/friendships-romance-humanity-mind-reading-tech
As important as our ability to speak our minds is the ability to keep them in silence...
..much to think about--about where we are and where we could go with interpersonal communications.
elP
Comment is about Interweb Counselling 101 (blog)
Original item by Suki Spangles
Ray, Heaney would be have been proud of this piece. If I may be so bold as to suggest shortening the longer lines in keeping to the tight format of the three and four word lines. Impressed. Tommy
Comment is about PROUD OF THE PAST (blog)
Original item by ray pool
elPintor
Tue 7th Feb 2017 23:04
long ago
in a land far away...
I had a girlfriend like this
who complained so much
that this or that one
didn't love her enough
I tried to make her understand
in the most loving way I could
that it was she, herself
who didn't love her...
elP
Comment is about Hope for another shot at life (blog)
Original item by LeGou
<Deleted User> (13762)
Tue 7th Feb 2017 19:39
Lux is up there in my admiration for American Poetry. This admiration was better put, by me, in poetry rather than prose. So here is a poem for him, originally published in Issue 24 of Poetry Salzburg Review. (Would also recommend Tony Hoagland and B H Fairchild).
For Thomas Lux
1. Trajectory
Your poems come from a long way off.
Dwell in my skull before working their way
into my bones. Where do they come from:
the scars of past hurts, clenching
your teeth while you smile?
Faced with the broken - in case we fall,
you've drawn up a map showing a rough
way to a settlement. At first route a
puzzle, till we learn to avoid those shells you
lob into our vanities, our ungrounded fears.
Then, I grant, true terrors will
scare us to the place you've shown us,
your navigation true,
hidden away in our sleep.
*
Your poems come from a summer
long ways ago: blonde, innocent days,
all the same length despite the seasons.
You write as from a winter outside Eden,
even when the sun shines. Out here
even the innocent, the innocent
especially, hear the dark horses.
They came from their own distance,
to join us here where limbs break, hearts tear,
hands reach out - but love has fled.
Seeking out the shortest route between
smiles, enough distance from hurt, your poems
come a long journey that ends here:
not what you've learnt but that you care.
2. Pilgrimage
You surprise with a sense of the holy;
perhaps you were born with it. We,
touching the world, not born entire, seek
evidence of God by wild roadsides.
If pilgrims are, they travel not to
redemption but to drown anxieties
in sleep, tired with the excitement
of elsewhere.
We cannot demand the holy, must
wait, cameras hungry, expecting
a gift (hidden like sun behind clouds)
to break through. I'm not sure, are you?,
if even stones wait for another's
touch, water's word, an occasional
embrace of snow, animal's tread.
Who survive in a world they must know -
because its shape holds them, count their
every breath. Horse in a snowy
field. Oyster-catcher on a pole, looking
out over a Northern harbour. Poppy
seeds in an envelope marked with
last year's date.
A woman, waiting in my mind until
she's sure it's safe to come out,
knows how what's holy works,
will remind me. You have that sense.
Perhaps you found it, discarded at
the roadside, on your way through a world
where, breathless, we're quite struck dumb.
David Andrew
Comment is about US poet and 'inspirational teacher' Thomas Lux dies at 70 (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Well said John, she's long been thought of as a daft moose aroond this hoose ?
If we didn't laugh, we'd cry ?
Paul
Comment is about BREXIT FLU BLUES (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
Thanks M.C., for your wise words and for being a fellow fan of the genius Bob Hope! I do hope he'll excuse me for using the cockney rhyming slang of his name in this piece for comedic purposes!
Paul
Comment is about Bob Hope Saved Me (blog)
Original item by Paul Waring
I think it's a Leadbelly tune called "Brown's Ferry Blues", MC.
Comment is about BREXIT FLU BLUES (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
If you lack that zest for life you can't
Replace it with a potted plant!
But laughing at life helps you cope
And I say thank goodness for Bob Hope.
(the original from Eltham!)
Comment is about Bob Hope Saved Me (blog)
Original item by Paul Waring
Love the catchy "rhythm n'blues (Bad Brexit variety!) style
for this topical taunt!
Comment is about BREXIT FLU BLUES (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
Thanks, David. I can respect politicians of every hue (although I mightn't agree with them) but I can't abide weakness in our leaders. Abbott has no credibility for me.
Comment is about BREXIT FLU BLUES (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
I'm not sure if this a self portrait, but it has a deprecating tone which gives it great appeal for me. Excellent slob content and wryly expressed. Interestingly Aldeburgh has an upmarket persona, I can easily imagine Great Yarmouth being the setting.
I love the individuality of it.
Ray
Comment is about Poetry at Aldeburgh (blog)
Original item by c byrne
<Deleted User> (13762)
Tue 7th Feb 2017 17:18
Points taken and accepted Steven - perhaps not fully regards the second half of your reply - but as Graham says, this is not really the place for such discussion. Another day perhaps. Cheers, Colin.
Comment is about 'The Hollow' by Rhiannon is Write Out Loud's Poem of the Week (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Laura, you are so generous, I don't know how to thank you. I'll remember these words.
Aythangyow so much, you've made my day ?
Paul
Comment is about Ice and Fire of Desire (blog)
Original item by Paul Waring
Thanks Jeff..as Smashey (or Nicey) once said, "er...wise words mate.." ?
Thanks again Laura ?
Comment is about Bob Hope Saved Me (blog)
Original item by Paul Waring
Just to say Colin that I wasn't saying that a poet shouldn't explain themselves in a forum/workshop situation. It was a comment about poers overexplaining in their poems and thus taking the strangeness of poetry away.
Comment is about 'The Hollow' by Rhiannon is Write Out Loud's Poem of the Week (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Thanks for the advice Colin, it does sound smoother. Also, thanks Raj.
Comment is about My Dearest Friend (blog)
Original item by E.M Chino
Yeh Paul - it is, well spotted. The other one, whilst I like it because it is a moment of lovely nostalgia for an otherwise shit childhood, this poem is about where we are now. Thanks chuck.
Comment is about revelations (blog)
Original item by Laura Taylor
It was well worth the time Paul. Editing is never a waste of time.
I meant to say too that your imagery is startling, and your use of rhyme is both subtle and, in that way, satisfying.
Comment is about Ice and Fire of Desire (blog)
Original item by Paul Waring
Hi Jeff - It's definitely stood the test of time.
Chocolate Cheers :)
Comment is about Daddy Loved Toblerone (blog)
Original item by Tom Doolan
I dip mine in hot tea & suck off the chocolate! Simply delicious.......Jeff
Comment is about Daddy Loved Toblerone (blog)
Original item by Tom Doolan
& a more natural remedy can't be found! Jeff.....
Comment is about Bob Hope Saved Me (blog)
Original item by Paul Waring
Thanks Laura, so glad you liked this piece, my heads full of Liverpool poets at the moment and I think that's what led me to write this.
BTW, I also toyed with the idea of introducing another friend, the party animal Mary Jane. But you can go too far and over-egg the pudding can't you? ....?
Paul
Comment is about Bob Hope Saved Me (blog)
Original item by Paul Waring
Laura, thank you. I am so touched, in fact thrilled, by your comments. I worked and revised this for such a long time that I began to doubt I'd ever capture the essence of what I wanted to express. So I posted it and hoped for the best. Your inspiring comments have made the effort of writing and revising it more worthwhile than you could imagine! Big thanks ?
Paul
Comment is about Ice and Fire of Desire (blog)
Original item by Paul Waring
Comment is about England Today (blog)
Original item by Wendy Higson
Hi Laura,
Great writing, depicting the harsh reality and lack of hope that blights the lives of many. I guess this will be part of the street poetry project you're involved with? Once again, good luck with that luck.
Paul
Comment is about revelations (blog)
Original item by Laura Taylor
Oh dear Graham. Boom boom, as Basil Brush used to say!
Ha, thank you - I seem to do that a lot, re the rhythm/rhyme thing. I'm not mad keen on endless end rhymes anyway. Glad you enjoyed it ?
Comment is about revelations (blog)
Original item by Laura Taylor
Laura, you know we don't often share the same hymn sheet (oh shit, I've just realised the pun) but I really like this piece.
For some bizarre reason, I had to keep going back over the lines in each stanza because I kept wanting it to rhyme! The rythm seems to suggest it somehow.
Anyway, bloody well done.
Graham
Comment is about revelations (blog)
Original item by Laura Taylor
Cor! Incredibly dense, and tangible in places too. This is an incredible piece Paul, nicely done.
Comment is about Ice and Fire of Desire (blog)
Original item by Paul Waring
Thank you David
I didn't set out to do that as such, but it made itself known to me as I was writing it, as these things do sometimes, and it seemed a perfect fit. I actually love singing Jerusalem, but unfortunately it only seems to happen at funerals these days.
Blake would bloody weep if he could see us now.
Comment is about revelations (blog)
Original item by Laura Taylor
This would work great as a song lyric. Nice one!
Comment is about Goodwill & The Mountain (blog)
Original item by Jeff
Wendy
Wed 8th Feb 2017 07:10
Hi I found writing things down helps me with all my problems it's taken a long time to have the strength but boy do I feel better .Wendy .
Comment is about Internalizing (blog)
Original item by LeeJ Waters