Thanks, Ray. Really glad you enjoyed it. ?

Comment is about these winter days (blog)

Original item by steve pottinger

Wow standing in your shoes right now. Thanks for sharing this poem. Mine is "blue eyes' he haunts me from miles away. Hurts huh

Comment is about Repeated story (blog)

Original item by LeGou

this is an awesome tumbling adventure, great

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

Original item by Stuart Buck

I was impressed by what Professor Robinson said in the High Windows essay....particularly this:

` can Dylan’s lyrics stand alone as poetry? On both occasions I gave the same answer: ‘No, they can’t.’ Why not? Poetry has been understood over many centuries in English-language cultures to be words composed for, predominantly, a speaking voice – and, consequently, the harmonics and dissonances of the variously weaker and stronger accents in naturally cadenced, pitched and stress-timed spoken English are the ground of its patterns, coherences, and aesthetic orders. Singing is different from speaking: it produces a far greater histrionic range`

The above has to do with (predominantly) the `speaking voice` in poetry, and the point about the `histrionics` of music made me think of the `oyez` style of vocal delivery once delivered by poets like Pound or - more recently - Adrian Hendry...as against the (musically assisted) more
`ordinary` style of Dylan`s delivery.

What does anyone think?

Or Are the two arts as separate as this suggests?

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

Original item by Greg Freeman

You show simple and sincere sentiments from the heart and if you try to stay true to your desires that's always the best way to live. Congratulations !

Ray

Comment is about 'Forever and a day' by Natasha Bowman is Write Out Loud's Poem of the Week (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Very different Steve - it sort of reminds me of a stageset or a Dennis Potter novel, not sure why, maybe because of the celestial overseeing !
A really good read.

Ray

Comment is about these winter days (blog)

Original item by steve pottinger

A trip where everything spirals out of control and an impetus of contrasts like the scene from 2001 with the flattening colour spectrum landscape. Powerful, persuasive yet confusing, Stu. Rich veins continue to spill out of your mind!

Ray

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

Original item by Stuart Buck

Haha Colin, it would be soooo typical of cats to be that superior about it! It's like they think we are lucky to have them not the other way around! Thanks for the comments.

Comment is about Love from your cat (blog)

Original item by CathyLCrabb

First read it sounds like nonsense and I don't get it.

By the fifth read images begin to appear and tiny little whiffs of sentiment creep out of each stanza.

This is very different, clever and much more pared down than your usual work Alexandra.

Why do I keep thinking about Clockwork Orange?

Comment is about Muddle Puddle (blog)

Original item by Alexandra K. Parapadakis

Thanks you Mark. It is hard to imagine now the impact of Elvis with his sexy pelvis antics on the public in the fifties, schoolboys and girls included, As well as simplifying music and radicalising the crooning technique for those used to Dickie Valentine and suchlike it had immense impact. But even the Lord can wreak havoc in such guise .
Thanks Emer hang on to that collection (or start a new one).
Stu. you make a salient point there - we all need people to look up to and I suppose to project our needs and desires onto, and en masse makes it valid. One to one as the poem suggests is really a bit sad for me. But aren't we all a bit sad anyway? Vive la Graceland. Sieg Heil or whatever. I remember playing for a Diwali celebration and the cabaret spot was an Indian Elvis. I wonder if he would have been pleased about all the imitators?

Colin: Thanks mate for the like. As you imply Elvis was steeped in that atmosphere and the sincerity came across for those of simple faith. A pity he was finally called while on the loo , but that's life I guess. I had no idea about his brother - it must have impacted on his family.
I saw the urban clip on the DA prog. That reminds me that he met up with Obama to talk about the future of the world, nothing serious but a great PR exercise for both and potentially gratifying. How many pinches of salt does it take when you consider the decimation waiting in the wings from military manoeuvring though ? It's much safer talking about major issues that don't involved mass destruction imposed to deal with other human threats.

Thanks all. Ray

Comment is about I WANT TO BE LIKE ELVIS (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Thanks, folks. ?

Comment is about these winter days (blog)

Original item by steve pottinger

there's nothing left for me to say but to hit the Like button and wish you a Merry Presley Christmas Ray! An original vinyl pressing of Elvis' Christmas Album is in the post.

incidentally, religion did play an important part in his life and he recorded a good number of such songs - hard to ignore the gospel influence growing up in Mississippi. When I visited his birthplace in Tupelo I saw the Assembly of God church that had been relocated to the site - the church in which his family attended when he was a child.

https://elvispresleybirthplace.com/project/elvis-childhood-church

Elvis was also a twin but his brother was stillborn - not sure that has anything to do with this but somehow I feel it should.

I think David Attenborough standing atop the Shard delivering his Planet Earth 2 last episode speech on the future of our world might be hoping for the title of the New Messiah. Sorry Elvis / Ray.

guess I found something to say after all !! C?L

Comment is about I WANT TO BE LIKE ELVIS (blog)

Original item by ray pool

proper good stuff Steve - love the opener and the rest just follows as it should. Thanks for posting, Colin

Comment is about these winter days (blog)

Original item by steve pottinger

I like this AP although the hot-bit-bit-bit-split-sit-lid-kid left my tongue a little inside out. Unfortunately I added an 's' to the front of 'hit' in the line 'take a hot hit' so maybe that distracted me! Otherwise a good poetical word play around with a suitable and well-chosen title. Good stuff.

thanks for posting,
Colin

Comment is about Muddle Puddle (blog)

Original item by Alexandra K. Parapadakis

My cat didn't do the gifting he just ate what he caught in front of me as if to say this is better than the shite you feed me. And if I tried to relieve him of his catch which would only gift him of worms, he would hide under the car and scowl at me. It was a constant battle which I was always going to lose. I love the idea that we should eat their gifts and be grateful - and also, maybe, the cat encouraging us to not eat factory farmed chicken with its skewed feline logic that the local wild bird population is ethically better - insert image of cat sitting in wait under bird feeders.

Lots of reasons to like this poem Cathy. At first sight it's a simple pet poem but it goes way beyond that and makes us question a whole raft of issues. Very enjoyable. Thanks for posting.

Colin

Comment is about Love from your cat (blog)

Original item by CathyLCrabb

Enjoyed this & for some reason I can see it as graffiti. People would read it & ponder n smile. Jeff.......

Comment is about Crack (blog)

Original item by Bill Simonson

Thanks for elP, they are as we know evil and beautiful at the same time. We'll never know why they give us those gifts but knowing cats as we do it's either sarcastic or vindictive or grateful!

Comment is about Love from your cat (blog)

Original item by CathyLCrabb

Thank you so much Estelle! For reading and for liking. I know they will all come good. When they get up.

Comment is about Adolencia- from my new collection MUMB (blog)

Original item by CathyLCrabb

Fresh stuff, Cathy..gave me a good laugh. Anyone who says cats aren't intelligent hasn't been paying attention. I had two (Ms. Daniels and Pearl--my son named them) who would mimic the tones in which I spoke to each of them and they each had their own special sound patterns..lovely animals. And, the eldest female "gifted" me with half a squirrel, part of a snake, and even a wrangled crow. Little surprises just for me.

Enjoyed this one, immensely.

elP

Comment is about Love from your cat (blog)

Original item by CathyLCrabb

A fantastically clever spectacle, Stu. I read this first at work and am now sitting down to go over it again. The last verses remind me of broadcast interference..a blinking in and out to digital space. Really great stuff.

elP

ps
I wondered briefly if you received any inspiration at all from salting--ah, cryptography and technojargon. Probably not, but it just came to me that it would be a handy device if the occasion called for it.

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

Original item by Stuart Buck

Hello Stuart,

I was a soldier once, I had a very particular and specific number that went alongside my rank, but I'll come to that in a moment.

I like this but at the same time I find it frightening. I used to drive from Dorset to Manchester very frequently when I was in Barracks and not overseas on Operations. I was a bit of a dare devil of a driver, and sometimes the lads I took home to Manchester would get the train back to Dorset. I had a Toyota Celica 2.0ST. A poor mans sports car back then. After a certain amount of time overseas I returned home one particular day back in the late 80's early 90's. I was absolutely knackered but once again found myself driving North to be with the woman I was madly in love with.

I was tired though, very tired, and found myself falling asleep at the wheel on the M5. Then, after some time I came too from being asleep while driving at 80mph in the middle lane. To this day I have no recollection of that time I was asleep. I don't know how long I was out of it, but i sensed it was some time.

Sometimes, to this day I feel like I have died. There were many incidents like that that were perplexing. I also skydived in the Army too. One exercise prior to deploying to The Gulf back in 1990, I was in Cyprus. One night i had a drunken fight with another soldier over a stupid incident at a bar in Ayia Napa. A couple of days later I found myself going into a flat spin on a 20 second delay skydive. I passed out, and couldn't remember pulling my D ring that deployed my chute. I could quite easily have gone into unconsciousness as a result of injuries sustained in the fight, yet, my rig deployed and I found myself coming too beneath my chute.

Then there is the numerous occasions that had me thinking I have been bumped by a foe, and there is also the times that through PTSD, I have tried to take my own life. All in all there are many occasions I can relate back to that see me questioning on a daily basis whether I am alive. But i say to myself..........'I think, therefore I am!'

It doesn't always work though. After military service i tried to undertake a HNC in Electronics and Electrical Engineering. Part of the course was to do conversions between Hexadecimal, Decimal and Binary number systems. I used to be able to do it really easily, but then mental ill health kicked in in a big way and I became severely disabled.

To this day, I don't know whether I am alive or dead. And to top it all, you are identified in some instances in the military by your last 3 numbers.

Reading your poem says a lot to me about death, and it's impact on others. Particularly witnesses to accidents, and I wonder, are we all part of a matrix where death is never real???

One doesn't really know! But still this piece is a good read.

And my military number............24729001.

Stay well blue.

Mike

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

Original item by Stuart Buck

Hello Ian,

3 Words.

ABSOLUTELY FEKKING BRILLIANT!

I cannot say more than that. It's about time people put things in perspective, and You have done that in a spectacular way.

Nice one Blue!

Mike

Comment is about Advent (blog)

Original item by Ian Whiteley

Thanks Emer.....these toilets exist!

Comment is about Mothballs n Piss (blog)

Original item by Jeff

Meant to say relate! Ooopppssss

Comment is about Muddle Puddle (blog)

Original item by Alexandra K. Parapadakis

Fantastic! Can reflate. Jeff

Comment is about Muddle Puddle (blog)

Original item by Alexandra K. Parapadakis

OMG this is so what I am going thru. It is amazing....thank you

Comment is about Martin Elder (poet profile)

Original item by Martin Elder

Thank you Martin. I actually do sing parts of it when I do open mic. Very perceptive of you my friend.

Comment is about lynn hahn (poet profile)

Original item by lynn hahn

Thank you so very much!!!! That means so much to get affirmation from other artists. I will be doing this open mike next month. I have created a character for my mother lol...well actually she was a character so I will reflect her when appropriate. Can't wait to go eat the scenery up with this one. Thanks again!

Comment is about DRAMA QUEEN (blog)

Original item by lynn hahn

hello Ray
yes, sorry not to come on Monday, I missed it, but have been unwell for nearly 2 weeks now, and finally on the mend.
Brilliant news about potw, but so sad that it is about an old friend, and the harsh ways we learn about death nowadays. rather bizarrely I often get suggestions from fb to make friends with people I know are dead!
thanks for the update re the school. Does look like it is really on the way out, what a pity.
have a few lines to kick off a poem, will send via email.
all very best
Karen x

Comment is about karen izod (poet profile)

Original item by karen izod

Thank you both for your comments ?

Comment is about GIRL OUTSIDE (blog)

Original item by Alexandra K. Parapadakis

clever stuff ray. i wonder, in a thousand years time, just which one will be remembered as the 'king' keeping in mind that before the jesus story there were countless religious tales with exactly the same story. ra, the egyptian sun god, is a particularly similar myth.

Comment is about I WANT TO BE LIKE ELVIS (blog)

Original item by ray pool

been intending to get to the Everyman for a while now Harry - George keeps singing its praises - hopefully will manage to do so in the new year - might see you there
Ian

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

Original item by Harry O`N eill

thanks for the comment on 'Less Than Human' Martin - sorry it's taken so long to respond - good to see you on Thursday at Wigan - just a shame it was so busy we didn't really get time to talk much - hopefully see you somewhere again soon
Ian

Comment is about Martin Elder (poet profile)

Original item by Martin Elder

I think you are right MCN I was one of those kids.

In those days you had to listen again and again before you had managed to write down all the lyrics to each song correctly.

If you read the Nobel acceptance speech that he wrote (delivered on his behalf) he clearly states that he never would have dreamed that his words would make the transition into literature, let alone win such a coveted prize.

However it is undeniable that he defines the Cold War generation's hopes wishes dreams and fears!

To me, everything else at the age of fifteen sounded peurile.

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

Original item by Greg Freeman

Beautifully written soul-baring. Loved it.

Comment is about Things I'll Never Tell You (blog)

Original item by Louise Alden

This gave me a good giggle. Great stuff. ?

Comment is about Mothballs n Piss (blog)

Original item by Jeff

I bought one of the earliest Dylan albums (was it called
"Freewheeling Bob Dylan"?) back in the sixties and didn't
feel inclined to repeat the outlay in his direction. His
style clicked in with the Greenwich Village/protest/
fashion at that time, becoming somewhat "cultish"
with the younger generation for that reason. He had
something to day but whether his lyrics are worthy of
a Nobel Prize for Literature (considering the worldwide
wealth of competition in the literary field) will remain
contentious; but not perhaps in the minds of those
who were young when he was young and for whom he
put to music their concerns and need to be heard in an uncertain atomic-age world.

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

Original item by Greg Freeman

This is so sweet, I love this one Trevor.?

Comment is about Blast From The Past (blog)

Original item by Trevor Alexander

Vinyl's back in town! Love it.???

Comment is about I WANT TO BE LIKE ELVIS (blog)

Original item by ray pool

mmmMMM - good one Steve ?

Comment is about these winter days (blog)

Original item by steve pottinger

One for the EP fans! I recall a young work associate from
Liverpool way back who was one and whilst I confess to
liking some of Mr Presley's songs ("The Girl of My Best Friend" was high on that list), I was already a huge fan
of Fats Domino, not to mention Little Richard and Jerry
Lee Lewis! That said, these lines do their job admirably
and those with their own memories spanning the years
will smile and nod as they read and remember.
And yes - the little dog at the phonograph was the HMV trademark...listening to "His Master's Voice", of course.

Comment is about I WANT TO BE LIKE ELVIS (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Thanks Ken. Likewise. It has the real advantage of
actually bringing about feelings of good will and charity to
one's fellows. And the pleasure of watching the youngest
among us discover wonder and joy for themselves...as
we did before them. Take what you will from the occasion,
it is that rich in its range of what is on offer.

Comment is about CHRISTMAS IN MIND (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

That's one I never heard before elP. An early one and quite raw in the backing - but so distinctive. I'm glad it sparked off a memory ! I loved to see the RCA dog and horn, I think that was HMV , not sure now.
Thanks a lot.

Comment is about I WANT TO BE LIKE ELVIS (blog)

Original item by ray pool

About feeling sorry for yourself some days.

Comment is about The Quick & the Dead (blog)

Original item by Jeff

Inspired by John Cooper Clarke.....what a guy!

Comment is about Mothballs n Piss (blog)

Original item by Jeff

There's an interesting essay about Dylan, poetry and literature in the latest edition of the online magazine The High Window https://thehighwindowpress.com/category/essays/

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

Original item by Greg Freeman

This would be a great poem to read at a wedding reception. Congratulations on winning POTW Natasha.I hope this gives you further encouragement to carry on writing. Cheers!

Comment is about 'Forever and a day' by Natasha Bowman is Write Out Loud's Poem of the Week (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Thanks everyone your comments bring me so much joy. This is why I love the WOL community. You guys are awesome. I'll definitely keep writing good poems and not so good poems.???

Comment is about 'Forever and a day' by Natasha Bowman is Write Out Loud's Poem of the Week (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

I used to sing this one as a lullaby to my one and only. My goodness, those sleepy eyes will always be a sight to remember..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8kQs91fj-w

Thanks for a good memory, Ray.

elP

Comment is about I WANT TO BE LIKE ELVIS (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Hey, Natasha! Claire has it right--so much promise. It's good to see your writing recognized here. And, I hope it serves as further encouragement to keep writing and to keep sharing.

You've got great style.

elP

Comment is about 'Forever and a day' by Natasha Bowman is Write Out Loud's Poem of the Week (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman