To be honest there have been some totally forgetable Nobel laureates in the past so I don't really see the problem with Dylan getting it. At least his songs are memorable. And he's not the first songwriter either. That honour falls to the Indian writer Rabindranath Tagore, author of a set of songs, Gitangali, still sung in India to this day.

Comment is about Absent Dylan 'panned poetry gold', says Swedish critic at Nobel awards night (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Another cracker. Same sort of sense as the other one I commented on. You do wry very well ?

Comment is about It's their fault, darling (blog)

Original item by Chunks and Marrow

Excellent short piece. Clever, dark humour, with a rather lovely sense of ennui about it too ?

Comment is about Razors do get dull (blog)

Original item by Chunks and Marrow

Colin - indeed. I've done the same thing myself on someone's poem, then heard it and they've totally made it work. Individual emphasis and delivery make the world of difference ? As for the gig - it appeared to actually stun the audience. I think because I know the poem so well, I underestimate the impact it's going to have.

Martin - thank you so much, for your comment, and your understanding, and the work that you do. This poem was the story of a very dear friend of mine, and I felt like I had to tell his story so that other people understand that surface and appearance is never the whole truth.

Weird story - I wrote this after bumping into him for the first time in ages. He was looking really healthy (had been at death's door), and was writing poetry, and had changed so much. He was actually happy. Then I woke up a few days later feeling a very strong urge to write his story, so I did but changed the names, obviously. That night, I got into my dad's car, and his favourite band (Alex Harvey) were playing on the radio - which felt weird. Then a few weeks later, he was found dead in his house - smack overdose and infection. I had to identify him cos he had no one else. Coroner's report put his death at about the time I wrote the poem. Still gives me the shivers, that, and I'm still pissed off with him that he folded when he was doing so well. Still miss him too.

elPintor - I love Lucinda ? Thank you.

Comment is about No One Called You Gordon (blog)

Original item by Laura Taylor

Thank you for your comment! It is meant to be "frown"!

Comment is about Christmas cheer (blog)

Original item by Becky Bintus

Claire,
I like the way you`ve aptly modernised the kings in the last line.

Comment is about Epiphany (blog)

Original item by Mrs Claire Baldry

Many thanks, each, for your thoughts.
Harry - I too am sure the issue has not played out by a long way yet in Syria. Indeed it is naive of us to think there is "a solution" to any of the Middle East's problems.
Suki - I am delighted to be proved wrong by you about my thoughts on political poetry. I have to say, though, you are very much the exception.
MC - I am as clouded in my thoughts on the Middle East as the rest of the world. But I am convinced the decision not to strike in 2013 was plainly and tragically wrong. "Sometimes the devil comes as a man of peace".
Just as an afterthought, Harry, I think the final lines in conventional rhythm and rhyme give the lie to the view that it is not a suitable vehicle for "weighty" poetry.

Comment is about THE MASTERLY STRATEGY OF INACTIVITY (NOT IN MY NAME) (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Ian,
Pre-Christmas preparations have stopped me getting right back to this one.

I like the simplicity of this (the way it goes through the tale and gets back to the state of things on earth)

I like that `and then you die` at the end of stanza three, and the telling of the resurrection in the next. we tend- not so much to forget, as to ignore - the fact that - like Christ - we have to die first.

I also like the way your repeated `Just imagine` is directed at the reader. (your first four stanzas have established that Christ had had a bit of experience of the later ones)

What I think would have made it more (modernly?) powerful would have been a reference to the mental agony which culminated in Christ`s `why have you forsaken me`)

As a Christian I would balk at the `magic` bit. But this is as open-an-eyed exposure of what the manger scene was all ultimately about as you could get.

Thanks.

Comment is about Advent (blog)

Original item by Ian Whiteley

I must have been about 10 when I heard, blowin in the wind, the times they are a changing, and thought this is it, what I was waiting to hear. Although I didn't take up Dylan for a few more years. And a generation later, sitting in a London suburb garden with my son and one of his buddies, singing Positively 4th St. late, late at night. We all know all the words. It's a better life with Dylan. Literary giants press on my shelves, there isn't a nobel laureate among them I would put before Bob, and I don't reckon him a poet, by the way, that's another argument.

Comment is about Absent Dylan 'panned poetry gold', says Swedish critic at Nobel awards night (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Thank you! It is nice to know there are good poemhunters who tell when they see one!

Comment is about Fresh 2 decades later (blog)

Original item by Alem Hailu G/Kristos

I really like the imagery you use here. It really spoke to me as I read this having breakfast with it still dark outside. I'm not looking forward to those cold hands!

Comment is about Here Again (blog)

Original item by A.M. Clarke

Sure you've got plenty left Doug! Looking forward to your return to writing!

Comment is about (blog)

Original item by Doug

I recall a poem from years ago following a similar style -
about not speaking up "(a WW2 item I think) in various
situations when people were being carted off by callous authority until finally "they came for me".
The Middle East is a tragic scenario but let's not forget
our own home suffering in war when our children and
other vulnerables perished by the thousand under air
attack across the land. Stoicism was the price
demanded - and the country and its people paid it.
The global media that exists now still appears to insist
that we have to take a "position" in conflicts wherever
they erupt, and we seem never to have enjoyed a real
peace since the Second World War. Perhaps due to a
political refusal to allow us to slip into a "Swiss-like"
existence of modest ambitions and prosperiity, insisting
instead on emulating their Empirical forebears by their
desire to strut the world stage and influence other
nations' existences (probably wishing they could send
a gunboat and wave a big stick at upstart malcontents across the globe).
When will we be allowed to live our lives free from the
envy or the egregious admonitions of the world and
its dog? Answers on the back of a stamp perhaps?!

Comment is about THE MASTERLY STRATEGY OF INACTIVITY (NOT IN MY NAME) (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

A good mix of self-awareness and optimism, with a last
couple of lines that have their own irrefutable power.
I was reminded of the fine seasonal hit of WW2 years -
"I'll Be Home For Christmas" (try Crosby or Sinatra) which
finished with the emotional kicker "If only in my dreams".
NB In stanza 8, last line/words: Is that meant to be "a groan"?

Comment is about Christmas cheer (blog)

Original item by Becky Bintus

Harry - having some experience in poetry (e.g. verse)
and songwriting (e.g. lyrics), I have the following observations to make.
Rhyme and rhythm can stand in both spheres, whereas
more wayward use of words tend to suit wayward
styles of music. .For example...consider the words of Blake's "Jerusalem" - given such a great tune by
Parry; and Rossetti's "In The Bleak Midwinter" given more than one arrangement, one of which
(by Holst) makes it my own favourite Christmas hymn.
You need to be an accomplished tunesmith to
successfully set music to words of any line, length,
or rhythm, but a looser style of lyric "lines" throws
up its own particular challenges, but no more than that.
There are composers who prefer to work to a previously
written lyric, and lyricists who prefer to hear a tune
before creating their idea of what story it should tell in
any particular context. Writing for the theatre and a
libretto is not the same as writing "popular music
per se". The disciplines have their own demands but
these are not insurmountable to those who know their
business. The mechanics of accent, emphasis and the
rest are essentially the tools of the trade for composers and lyricists who know that business.
Dylan was more of a storyteller/narrator in his songs
and perhaps was his own best composer/arranger for
that reason. Someone like Cole Porter wrote for
the theatre - a 100% storyteller's entertainment -
yet HIS songs, impeccably crafted and constructed -
stand alone outside the theatrical arena, in their own
right as individual specimens of the skill and adaptability
of the songwriter's craft that, decades after they
first appeared, still find huge popularity with each succeeding generation. I bet HE would have attended the Nobel Prize ceremony!!

Comment is about Absent Dylan 'panned poetry gold', says Swedish critic at Nobel awards night (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Hi, Laura..this post has been sneaking up in my thoughts since you posted it. That must be a sign of a well-written piece. This evening I'm listening to Lucinda Williams and this song, once again, brought up thoughts of Gordon..

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

..a powerful piece revealing much of our humanity.

elP

Comment is about No One Called You Gordon (blog)

Original item by Laura Taylor

Hi John,
Although my perspective on Syria is very different from yours I enjoyed this poem - and your recording of it. it's a well written piece. This also touches on a question you asked a while ago in your discussion thread about "who treads political poetry?". Well, occasionally I do. And, yes, it is possible to "enjoy" a political poem while holding a differing point of view - depends on the size of one's ego I guess. Thanks for sharing.

Comment is about THE MASTERLY STRATEGY OF INACTIVITY (NOT IN MY NAME) (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

same goes for me Alem.Your best poem yet.




Rose ?

Comment is about Fresh 2 decades later (blog)

Original item by Alem Hailu G/Kristos

I rather like the word play in this!

Comment is about FULL ENGLISH BREXIT (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Thanks, Martin.

I wanted to dedicate this to all of the terrible history (recent and otherwise) I've read about and witnessed through the eyes of others over the years. One might get the idea that events would reach a sort of "critical mass" and things would blow all to hell. But then, I suppose they do. It just seems that the people pulling the strings are safely hidden from harm while the powerless are left to suffer for crimes they didn't commit.

Anyhow, I had to listen to a piece of music of which I'm very fond after posting this. I feel that its essence captures (in a microcosm) the gathering momentum I tried to convey in the writing..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufrIv1SLD_k

elP

Comment is about behemoth (blog)

Original item by nunya

First class, John!
A truly humanitarian piece of poetry!

I think the next few days - or weeks - will allow much more to be said about this, as the air clears and we begin to see where the various factions are going to end up in what it seems will be a continuing fractious situation. (I suspect some secret agreements between Russia and America on this - but we shall see)

That last section (BTW) is an excellent (and rhymed!) example of the power of `thought-out` political poetry.

Comment is about THE MASTERLY STRATEGY OF INACTIVITY (NOT IN MY NAME) (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Hi Claire - I enjoyed your poem very much and echo Martin's comment - but would it be really bad of me if I said that the first half reminded me of the Top Gear special when three slightly unwise men drove to the Holy Land to find the birthplace of 'the baby Jesus' which turned out to be a baby Stig? Please forgive my unholy and silly thoughts. All the best, Colin.

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

Comment is about Epiphany (blog)

Original item by Mrs Claire Baldry

very enjoyable Martin, made me think of many things which were all probably unrelated to your theme or message but nonetheless that's what poetry, in part, should do. There are hints of who-do-you-think-you-are ancestry and what-did-our-ancestors-ever-do-for-us which, coincidentally, have been themes running through my mind of late although settling my mind to write these days has been nigh on impossible. All the best, Colin.

Comment is about Misty Islands (blog)

Original item by Martin Elder

I like this too Alexander and enjoyed the word play as Jemima pointed out. However I think there is room for tightening up or perhaps shortening. All the best and thanks for posting. Colin

Comment is about Pain to Paper (blog)

Original item by Alexander Watson

Thanks guys and gals ?

Comment is about Rose Petals (blog)

Original item by Nicola Byrnes

Hi Alexander.I like this poem very much,especially the clever word play.Thank you.Jemima.

Comment is about Pain to Paper (blog)

Original item by Alexander Watson

Across salty tongue licked breeze

some great lines in this Martin and with it a strong message for all!

Comment is about Misty Islands (blog)

Original item by Martin Elder

Alem,
I like the clarity of the whole thing...and the humility in that third section.

Comment is about Fresh 2 decades later (blog)

Original item by Alem Hailu G/Kristos

please feel free to add new verses to it.?

Comment is about sudden inspiration (blog)

Original item by ottica

Thanks so much. Obviously I'm ADHD. It does get crazy at times but hey at least I have a lot of pep right

Comment is about ADHD (blog)

Original item by lynn hahn

thanks everyone for your nice comments. i really appreciate them. im actually going to tinker with this, not with the content but with the layout. i had hoped for a more graceful, flowing end with more space in between the words, numbers. but i am happy you all got so much out of it.

Comment is about the golden ratio (2+2=5) (blog)

Original item by Stuart Buck

Thank you very much.

Comment is about Motivation (blog)

Original item by Chrissun Buligon

The last verse is spectacular Stu. I read the last verse through a few times. Genius. Thanks for sharing. Audacious, and it works.

Comment is about the golden ratio (2+2=5) (blog)

Original item by Stuart Buck

A fab poem Laura as I would expect from you, in true gritty style. Having worked with people in this predicament I find this an all too familiar tale, but extremely well told.
Nice one
Martin

Comment is about No One Called You Gordon (blog)

Original item by Laura Taylor

Cynthia, thanks for your recent comments on 'Halcyon' and 'Anonymous'. I think I most struggle to find inspiration when I'm thinking too hard about getting something to sound 'right', as opposed to just coming out with initial thoughts and then tidying them up after I finish a poem completely. I think this way is better as it is the best way to get what you want to get across.

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Thanks for the appreciation for 'The Drawbridge' Martin. It was a real off-the-cuff one to be honest! ?

Comment is about Martin Elder (poet profile)

Original item by Martin Elder

There is a fabulous almost classic turn of phrase on such a meaty and evocative subject here elp
love it

Comment is about behemoth (blog)

Original item by nunya

I love the rhythm and flow of this piece
bled from the bowl that starts
and ends with your city face,
your birch frame and sweet breath,

beautiful line's

Comment is about The Drawbridge (blog)

Original item by David Blake

Very clever Claire I like it, bringing the past into the present. A good poem

Comment is about Epiphany (blog)

Original item by Mrs Claire Baldry

ty for your kind comments; yes i know there is good in the world; but at this moment in time I feel the guilt of a celebration when there is so much horror going on around us; it is for each of us to express these feelings especially if of a sensitive nature; we all have opinions so in poetry we express them in the only way we can

Comment is about M.C. Newberry (poet profile)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

Very good advice Chrissun.


P&S.xx

Comment is about Motivation (blog)

Original item by Chrissun Buligon

haha! we loved it Lynn!

Comment is about ADHD (blog)

Original item by lynn hahn

lovely stuff priyakhi!

P&S.xx

Comment is about UNCONNECTED LOVE.. ! (blog)

Original item by priyakhi barbara

Thank you all.

Bit of a confession to make on this one...it's an old one, re-posted, because I'm doing it tonight at my last gig of the year and wanted to run it past you all. I've only performed it twice before. I know it's a very heavy piece, but it's also a true story, so I think - well, you think it's hard to hear? Try living it. And then think twice - as you rightly point out Wolfgar.

Thank you all so much, and Colin, it really does work when I perform it chuck ?

Comment is about No One Called You Gordon (blog)

Original item by Laura Taylor

Something in these lines brings to mind the lyric of the song
"The Man in The Looking Glass" on the superb Sinatra disc
"September of My Years". In a sense, we see ourselves
distorted in the mirrored reflection while a daily view is
no bad thing as it allows us to adjust to changes without
really realising they have occurred - albeit wondering
why long separations bring unexpected changes in others!
Personally, I prefer checking that portrait I keep in the attic!! ?

Comment is about The Mirror (blog)

Original item by Trevor Alexander

Quietly effective - this observation of our relationship with
what is gone and our own continued existence. And how
we may come to terms with both within ourselves.

Comment is about The Letting Go (blog)

Original item by Tom Harding

From a predominantly agnostic point of view in my late
years, I find solace in the sight and sound of actual
efforts to be of good cheer, and to be positive about
the fundamental goodness of most of us as we struggle
our way through a life that's rarely easy or straightforward.
The bible story has its value even if belief in its tale of a
virgin birth, a carpenter's existence, and what might be
viewed today as a self-obsessed mania that upset the
status quo of the day leading to capital punishment, is
essentially for the faithful and devout. Christmas can
give us much that is comforting and optimistic about life
and how to live it...if we let it.

Comment is about SO HOW CAN I CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS (blog)

Original item by jean lucy thompson

Although it hurts I think that events like this teach us the best lessons in life. Live,love and learn!

Comment is about Repeated story (blog)

Original item by LeGou

Each track of time
mirrors difficult paths taken
disappointment only becomes distant
further forward through life.

Comment is about December Collage Poem: Disappointment - Part 2 (blog)

Original item by Stockport WoL

Eyes of summer love
chocolate smiles and warmth
watching drowning in disappointment
the train of destiny
has plans for you
your time will come.

Comment is about December Collage Poem: Disappointment - Part 1 (blog)

Original item by Stockport WoL