Thanks Colin. Quite a bit of freedom for description in this format. The twist of fate !

regards Ray

Comment is about FINAL SCENE (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Good poem Ian. A pity the MPs aren't going to listen today.

Comment is about Perhaps... (blog)

Original item by Ian Whiteley

Thanks, Martin. :-)

Comment is about this will be a re-run (blog)

Original item by steve pottinger

terrific piece of writing Ray - the detail of the moment and the inevitable moving on. Time is indeed sadly passing us all into oblivion.

Comment is about FINAL SCENE (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Great poem expressing your thoughts and emotions.
You took me on a ride to vinyl city.

Comment is about Drop the needle (blog)

Original item by Martin Elder

Love this poem!

Comment is about Rosa Parks (blog)

Original item by Carol Falaki

So much wonderful performance poetry can be found in hundreds of events across the country, as can be observed by the WriteOutLoud Gig Guide, which is by no means definitive.
Although the tens of thousands seems a gift horse not to look in the mouth and eschew, it is a shame to award so much to one organisation to the exclusion of all others and their adherents.
London's The Poetry Library has an extensive archive and other libraries up and down the country, including many universities also house such material, and let us not forget the many scores of small press poetry magazines, ezines, pamphlets, etc..
This is a job for Superfan... poetry-wise.

Comment is about Lottery Fund awards grant for spoken word and performance poetry archive (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

this is onomatoperfect, a word i have just created for this poem. all the more pleasurable as i read it moments after booting up my old ferguson turntable and pumping out some prokofiev.

Comment is about Drop the needle (blog)

Original item by Martin Elder

This has all the pleasure of a mechanical act with the magic of sound - the demise of a wonderful ritual mercifully brought back to life more recently !
The metre perfectly brings to mind the spinning disc.

Very nice Martin.

Comment is about Drop the needle (blog)

Original item by Martin Elder

Thanks Martin for your comment on Final Scene. Appreciate it. Ray

Comment is about Martin Elder (poet profile)

Original item by Martin Elder

Yep this just speaks of another less than well thought out plan. Nice one Tommy

Comment is about Bombs away (but what do I care?) (blog)

Original item by Tommy Carroll

I like the memories in this one Steve together with the excellent rhythm you have built up with the flow of words.

Comment is about this will be a re-run (blog)

Original item by steve pottinger

I love the line'feed the fire with our burdens' Nice one smash

Comment is about By the Hearth (blog)

Original item by Smash Lee

I love the skeletal wisp of scurvy grass. Fab Stu

Comment is about serenity (blog)

Original item by Stuart Buck

Nice one Ian. I would definitely like to hear this one live. I can hear the rant already.

Comment is about Perhaps... (blog)

Original item by Ian Whiteley

This really is like the final act in a play. captivating stuff

Comment is about FINAL SCENE (blog)

Original item by ray pool

I look forward to reading your stuff, Stu. This petite offering is a thrill - small like the object it lovingly describes and hence all in proportion. A great format too. Leering moonlight is an added bonus.

Ray.

Comment is about serenity (blog)

Original item by Stuart Buck

I do like a good rant! Excellent.

Comment is about CROC OF SHIT (blog)

Original item by Daniel Dwyran

I really like this poem, Tim. Must have read it three or four times today, and each time I find something new. Cracking.

Comment is about This bird (blog)

Original item by Tim Ellis

David - I often try to avoid using 'I' because it stands out at the start of a line especially when not using capital letters, which I often don't do either. Just personal preferences at the end of the day. I always think about the way a poem looks on the page. It would be interesting to see this one stripped down a bit - as you say, kick out a few words. I often do that too after a first draft - see how much can be lost - leave just the important words. Sometimes it works and other times I think I end up adding more. I am always happy to go back and change my work - add or take away words - move things around a little. Some people hate to do this but I like to look after my poems and let them grow with time - evolve and adapt - take on new meanings. The whole first person thing got me thinking about my own poems on here and having checked them out I noticed quite a few 'I's. So maybe I'm contradicting myself, who knows! Good luck!

Comment is about This is the modern world ... (blog)

Original item by David Addington

Haha. Thanks Julian. Welcome home.

Comment is about Don't Mention the Children: Michael Rosen, Smokestack (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Thanks Dave.

Comment is about Don't Mention the Children: Michael Rosen, Smokestack (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

"No Heavy Petting"? That sounds ahead of its time when
the world thought everything began with "The Swinging
Sixties".
I'm reminded of that great yesteryear songline -
"You can't go to jail for what you're thinking..."!

Comment is about THE WOOLLY TRUNKS (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Hi SP - I think it was the mention of things being
flogged off and bought up by distant (opportunist?)
emerging economies and the concept that the "family
silver" is being sold off for whatever purpose that caused
the flag-waving for what can't, in fact, be bought in the
long term of future generations.

Comment is about comrade osborne and the little red book (blog)

Original item by steve pottinger

Thanks for the comments Martin.

Comment is about Bluff amongst the olives (For Ted Hughes and J.R.Hartley) (blog)

Original item by David Addington

Thanks for the great comments lads Yes I particularly love that line too. Them words of "finger fucking your smartphone" have been with me all year and I was just looking for a place to use them. I tried a song lyric first, but a poem is better. Yes, the title is influenced by the Jam a lot, as I really like Weller's wit and attack on the system back in the 70's. It's a sort of homage to that song and then a continuation of how life has become so shallow. Writing in some way is observation and that is what this is. It's a first draft though as I think I could kick out some words - less is more and perhaps remove the 'I' from it too. I have tried to avoid using first person in my poems, but at times it just feels natural and a lot of new poetry am checking out by others, do tend to lean towards autobiographical. I suppose culturally it is a spin off of the 'me' and 'want it now' culture we now live in.

Comment is about This is the modern world ... (blog)

Original item by David Addington

Thank you for your wonderful comments

Comment is about AN ODE TO MY GRANDDAD... (blog)

Original item by Manasa Krishnan

"Families WILL be killed!" Prime minister Cameron just released

Comment is about Bombs away (but what do I care?) (blog)

Original item by Tommy Carroll

To me this speaks of the helplessness that we all feel in this present situation. Well put Tommy.

Comment is about Bombs away (but what do I care?) (blog)

Original item by Tommy Carroll

Another poem from my pamphlet "Speak The Unspeakable", although I first published it in my first collection "Birds of the World in Colour". Written in 2001 or early 2002 it's an expression of anger when Britain and the US invaded Afghanistan and it first dawned on me how the world's reliance on fossil fuels is driving conflict and destroying not only nature, but the lives of some of the world's poorest people.

Speak The Unspeakable is now on the final day of a free promotion on Kindle. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Speak-Unspeakable-words-overheating-world-ebook/dp/B017QBUL7M/ref=sr_1_1_twi_kin_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1448973394&sr=1-1&keywords=speak+the+unspeakable

Comment is about This bird (blog)

Original item by Tim Ellis

Thanks Mark. Any diversion is a relief from the dullness.
I don't think pelicans are viewed with much fondness at the best of times (huge at the front) and waddling about in despair.

Blimey, David. I think the unshaven version is worth investigating any month. Seasons and reasons -another poem perhaps! RAy

Comment is about NOVEMBER DAYS (blog)

Original item by ray pool

A sort of automaton existence David in a way. To destroy historical artefacts is a negation of art in a sense, reminding one of the Nazi book burning . Art invites people in, and any cult of idealogy cannot tolerate outsiders I suppose.
Ray

Comment is about WHAT WOULD WE DO IF THE POEMS RAN OUT (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Thanks for your comment, MC. Stirring stuff. I'm not sure it addresses any of the points in the poem, though. Are you sure you posted it in the right place?

Comment is about comrade osborne and the little red book (blog)

Original item by steve pottinger

yep - love it or loath it there's no escape!

I'm with Graham - that whole line is ace.

This is the modern world...The Jam 1977 ?

Comment is about This is the modern world ... (blog)

Original item by David Addington

I suspect as a 1952 Baby Boomer that I probably just avoided rationing. I certainly didn't manage to avoid the knitted woolly trunks.
I was always intrigued by the signs at Bulwell Lido which, among a range of "dont's", read "No Heavy Petting". The chance would have been a fine thing!

Comment is about THE WOOLLY TRUNKS (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

What a compelling review, Frances. Michael Rosen going on a facist hunt. We're not scared.

Comment is about Don't Mention the Children: Michael Rosen, Smokestack (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

There's one thing the world can't take from this island
nation: it's enviable (and envied) creative/inventive
genius and its huge "merchant venturer" experience
gained by intrepid souls setting out to trade that genius
to the world in other days and establishing the
reputation of the country as somewhere worth doing
business with. Sure, certain industries have been
taken over by emerging lands with labour costs we can't
match so we have to change and vary our skills to keep
up with a changing marketplace. Any chancellor and his
team need to "keep up with that essential keeping up".
Ask the world of film here in the UK how it has become
so profitable...and it's a fair bet a sensible govt. policy
of support/taxation has been a primary cause of its global success. And there are others. Adaptability is
the secret of success.
"Always look on the bright side of life..."

Comment is about comrade osborne and the little red book (blog)

Original item by steve pottinger

I think of November like an interlude from the cinemas of
my youth - near silence & lights dim until the main feature
(read: "winter" in this case) was due to arrive.
A seagull eating a dead rat reminds me of the report
here in central London of a pelican swallowing a live pigeon
in St James' Park. Nature isn't all David Attenborough and
comforting "Save the (fill in your choice)" charities!

Comment is about NOVEMBER DAYS (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Ah yes...those days of austerity when ration books were
still being used to obtain the small issues of food etc.
that post-war Britain existed on; when wood and coal was
fetched for fires in homes before central heating - and
woolly swim trunks sagged down white legs behind a
closely clutched towel to form a cold puddle on the deck...
in the hope there was still lukewarm tea left in the thermos
flask to silence chattering teeth!
I remember them well.

Comment is about THE WOOLLY TRUNKS (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

I love the smartphone dementia!

Comment is about This is the modern world ... (blog)

Original item by David Addington

Cheers Colin - I love the way you mention that and "pleasure boat" in the same sentence!! Ray

Comment is about NOVEMBER DAYS (blog)

Original item by ray pool

thanks all. sometimes restraint is needed to convey true emotions i feel. i originally had quite a dark sexual vein running through this, then took it out completely and to the poems benefit.

Comment is about the storm (blog)

Original item by Stuart Buck

I like this poem a lot said - and even more unspoken - in so few words

Comment is about the storm (blog)

Original item by Stuart Buck

I once watched a seagull swallow a whole drowned sodden rat whilst I sat eating my breakfast in a pleasure boat moored opposite a rowing club jetty in Norwich. It was a ghastly sight - a bit like this November. Let's hope December brings us crisp sunny days to clear the mind.

A well written and thought out poem Ray.

Comment is about NOVEMBER DAYS (blog)

Original item by ray pool

social pratfalls ((blush))

Yes Tina more chuckle less knuckle Tommy :-)

Comment is about The Ladies Hat (blog)

Original item by Tina Rooney

This is a sort of desperate cosiness against a backdrop of something ludicrous and offensive. Could it be married life, I wonder. I've certainly seen this film before.

Excellent Stu.

Comment is about the storm (blog)

Original item by Stuart Buck

What a treat to read a poem with a light touch and highly amusing. Well done -more please. I enjoy social pratfalls!

regards Ray

Comment is about The Ladies Hat (blog)

Original item by Tina Rooney

So nice to get your comment David. The ignoring feels like part of the month! I think some poets including yourself have done November already, but this is like a kick in the arse as it leaves the universe.
Yes, to be born is a serious thing anytime but this month.....
We're fine thanks. Share a drink old mate with my thoughts. Ray

Comment is about NOVEMBER DAYS (blog)

Original item by ray pool

I think Cynthia`suggestion of `fleetingly`is spot on because - in addition to it`s rhythmic assonance - the soundless `f` which introduces it is also suggestive of the swift and feathery shortness of the snowflakes life.

(and also initially fits with the frosted fern later)

Very good `earing Cynthia!

Comment is about The Snowflake (blog)

Original item by Roy Chetham

I really like this, its imagery and its truth. And 'beauty' so difficult to capture.

May I make a suggestion? And then I go ahead and do so, unasked.

I would use either 'transiently' or 'fleetingly'. I know they are not exactly synonymous, but perhaps close enough to choose just one to keep the power of the line itself firmly focussed. Maybe 'fleetingly', because it picks up the sound value of 'repeated' which then supports and progresses an invisible cohesion of thought working towards a climax of 'GONE!' Plus, the shorter line itself is indicative of 'disappearing'.

These are respectful 'thoughts, and can be totally ignored. I make them because I like the poem so much and I miss active discussion with fellow poets.

Comment is about The Snowflake (blog)

Original item by Roy Chetham