I love the way that this character is leaving it all behind and thinking about what's to come. Nice one
Comment is about ON THE OPEN PLAIN (blog)
Original item by ray pool
Nice poem Andy. I particularly like criss-crossing into brutal rhythms
Comment is about International Exiles (blog)
Original item by Andy N
crikey Stu, straight to the point this one. I think that is why I like it. it also appeals to my melancholic side.
Comment is about Orchard (blog)
Original item by Stuart Buck
Not so much a haze of marijuana smoke, more clouds of steam, eh, chaps?
Comment is about Berrylands (blog)
Original item by Greg Freeman
just to say thanks for your liking of On the High Plains!
It was a dream in the sense that there is the hope of something dreamlike unable to be confirmed; but I twisted that line into a trap for the mind!!
regards Ray
Comment is about Jacqueline Phillips (poet profile)
Original item by Jacqueline Phillips
A harrowing poem but it does give me, in some ways, more faith in the human race when I read poetry such as this, as it speaks of the the empathy and sorrow so many people are feeling when they see those news reports about those oh so desperate people.
Comment is about International Exiles (blog)
Original item by Andy N
This poem, to me, reads as though it takes place in a dream despite the line which seems to say it is too real to be so. I have had some very realistic dreams though so perhaps that's just me. I enjoyed reading it, thanks.
Comment is about ON THE OPEN PLAIN (blog)
Original item by ray pool
Nigel beat me to it with this but the pictures are here. i put it on my blog here but forgot to post it here
http://onewriterandhispc.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/write-out-loud-stockport-enchantment.html
next theme is shadows isn't it?
Comment is about Stockport WoL (group profile)
Original item by Stockport WoL
Hi Greg. As you know I love railways; I lived in Surbiton for fifteen years. Berrylands was tucked away - if I'm right it had wooden platforms up in the air from the station entrance. I used to watch the namers at Weybridge further down the line. Got some B & W prints of the period I took with the old pentax. Blah blah, could go on all night. Ray
Comment is about Berrylands (blog)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Ian, lovely poem. Without going into the whys or wherefores of the political slurry it tells a compelling tale and stands upright as a defence of honest labour. The whole ethos of lives dedicated to the cause of Great Britain has been airbrushed by multinational corporations from skyscrapers.
May I suggest an alternative : "what once was present becomes THE past," to make the line scan?
humbly yours. Ray
Comment is about On The Slag Heap (blog)
Original item by Ian Whiteley
<Deleted User> (13762)
Tue 29th Sep 2015 20:33
my kinda poem Ray - thumbs up from this high plains drifter all the way.
Comment is about ON THE OPEN PLAIN (blog)
Original item by ray pool
I write a lot of things recently to be read or performed by people a great deal better than me. I'll give it a go and put it up.. Problay tinnite. Only if you do something similar. Deal?
Comment is about Stuart Buck (poet profile)
Original item by Stuart Buck
i really think it would benefit from live treatment. the first lines are perfect for a stutter, hiphophian delivery (i'll come to that in a minute!).
My home smells like sour and sweat,
post-partum regret
a quarter century flipped
for the malmanager's bet.
As insulting as this is, imagine eminem rapping this. it would work!?!?!?
hiphophian. meaning (imo) it has a 'flow' like the best hip hop. in that it stumbles nicely off the tongue. i have performed scott peterson to myself in the mirror to see how it sounded and it worked really well.
Comment is about Zach Dafoe (poet profile)
Original item by Zach Dafoe
I could tell you some Tommy as a village milkboy in my early teens!
Comment is about (blog)
Original item by Tommy Carroll
The dedication of those "part-time pioneers" who ensured the survival of steam and the emergence of numerous
preserved lines across the country - crowned by the
superb accomplishment of the building from discarded
plans of "Tornado" - is one of the great success stories
in the UK's recent transport history. I was down in
Victoria SW1 a while ago - occupying a spot near the line
as the recreated Golden Arrow - flags flying - pulled out
of the station behind a Battle of Britain class loco. Great
stuff! Youtube has a wealth of videos that are clearly
made with real affection and devotion, and provide
wonderful reminders of how it used to be back in the day
when a Woodbine (a different weed!) was seen emitting its own cloud of smoke in the carriages.
Comment is about Berrylands (blog)
Original item by Greg Freeman
This piece puzzles me somewhat.
Without being rude this reminds me of one of those experimental ideas where a steam of consciousness listing is produced and then worked on to make a viable poem.
There are some incredibly vibrant words/statements here. I'd love to see these re-worked.
Well done by the way!
Comment is about vultures are good people with bad intentions (9/28/2015) (blog)
Original item by Zach Dafoe
Change - that great reminder that time passes and the
world spins on. Am I right when I recall this plant being
foreign-owned...Thai perhaps? In a global world, the
competition is growing and emerging nations with their
cheap eager labour forces will be the beneficiaries. But
"Team GB" has long been skilled at adapting - and GS's
reminder of how Corby has met change is one such
example. In the meantime, it is always the case that the
individual and those dependent on him/her will suffer,
certainly in the shorter term and they should be helped
to move on - with the money our government seems to
find readily enough to send abroad as "aid". Isn't it time
government set up a "Home Aid" programme to cover
such occurrences and their hardships for the local folk?
Comment is about On The Slag Heap (blog)
Original item by Ian Whiteley
Morning Greg, I saw this news item!
Are you sure you didn't drop a few dog ends down there many years ago and nature took hold?
Scots Brits and Jubilees, oh! they were indeed the days.
I wish you could have seen the look on my two eldest grandsons' faces when I took them to see "Bittern" the Gresley class that thundered through near here recently.
Pure magic, tear in the eye stuff for more reasons than one.
Comment is about Berrylands (blog)
Original item by Greg Freeman
I think this piece conjures up your desperation well. The repetition works really well.
Comment is about (blog)
Original item by Autumn Jones
As a father of four and now with seven grandchildren I can fully attest to the fact that your life will never be the same again.
Things as you describe are but one of the many miracles that one's children deliver along the road, make sure you capture them all. They are very fleeting!
Comment is about Flutter Kicks (blog)
Original item by Alycia Gonzales
This is really emotional stuff Ian and once again makes one think how politics, economics, fashion, technology, et al, all go towards the irreversible change that takes place everywhere.
I've never lived north of Leicester myself so do not understand the importance that these once great industries had for towns up there.
The nearest I got was living and working in Corby (little Scotland as it was known then) where steel ruled the roost.
Today it still thrives as a technology and communications hub.
Change is incessant, some good some bad!
Comment is about On The Slag Heap (blog)
Original item by Ian Whiteley
I remember that review, Steven...it was complimentary compared to Don Watson's review of my first album 'Ranting At The Nation' in the NME in 1983. He said he'd rather gnaw through his own arm than listen to it again. :)
I use that one on loads of my publicity!
Comment is about 'Poetry books will sell if people can relate to what you are writing': Attila the Stockbroker (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
A bit of context here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-34359775
Comment is about Berrylands (blog)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Visitors view this
Art Gallery showpiece.
Five star poetry
Enchantment the theme.
Displayed inside headquarters
Of Stockport W.O.L.
Comment is about Write Out Loud Stockport @ Stockport Art Gallery - Enchantment (blog)
Original item by Andy N
The Poetry of Enchantment
Poem number 11
In The Presence of Peace by Dorina Macdowell
Poem number 17
Redefining Our Past in Saffron by Grey Nicholls
Poem number 16
In The Garden of Enchantment by Nigel Astell
Poem number 15
Lighthouses in the Mist by Andy N
Poem number 12
Winter's Mourn by Martin Elder
All five poems were put on display in The Enchanted Gallery
I shall go down tomorrow and collect them and bring them to our next meeting.
Comment is about Stockport WoL (group profile)
Original item by Stockport WoL
I particularly liked the opening lines to this poem, they really dreally drew me in.
Comment is about vultures are good people with bad intentions (9/28/2015) (blog)
Original item by Zach Dafoe
Beautifully captured and powerful in a way that mummys understand. I loved reading this. Very nice.
Comment is about Flutter Kicks (blog)
Original item by Alycia Gonzales
gmorning stu,
if im honest, I don't perform anything live without having it right in front of me. I have had and always will have a really fleeting, darting sense of concentration and can't even memorize the simplest things. (especially things I've written myself) It's been a really frustrating hurdle for me.
should I recite that Scott Peterson entry? It's pretty easy to do from home, but every time I record I start to hate the sound of my own voice.
EDIT: hiphophian. I like it. What's it mean to you?
Comment is about Stuart Buck (poet profile)
Original item by Stuart Buck
I do regret giving Atilla a bad review of Scornflakes many years ago; I was much younger and far too hard & fast in my views. I think now I'd just not review something I don't really identify with. Although I loved and still love punk music for its energy, I probably love jazz more; and the same with poetry. I just love the weird experimental stuff more...
I never much identified with the tea-cups and railway enthusiasm of Betjemen either so we do have something in common. And John Cooper Clarke too; though again I think Linton Kwesi Johnson was much better, with or without the reggae.
Someone (I can't remember who) said that he had read to thousands at festivals, and I of course have only read at most to a few hundred and usually much less than a hundred. I've never found that level of fame even remotely inviting; which is one of the reasons I've never gone for it. Like Graham I prefer to be read than heard.
But there's enough room in the capacious world of poetry for all sorts, from ranters to rhymers to weird avant gardists like myself.
Comment is about 'Poetry books will sell if people can relate to what you are writing': Attila the Stockbroker (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
When pieces of work provoke thought they achieve their purpose.
In the residential home where my mother spent her last months there was a very smartly turned out lady who seemed to have been miscast in her position there.
Her name as Mrs Garrod and she would occasionally peer out of the window and remark that her husband was late for visiting.
He had died more than twenty years previously.
She didn't seem in pain, looked healthy and kempt but I wondered what it actually felt like to suffer what she was going through.
As I said thought provoking!
Comment is about DEMENTIA HOME (blog)
Original item by ray pool
Shh David. Breath deep and slowly... Also a swell shout abt ..
Comment is about I’m boiling at 14 degrees (blog)
Original item by David R Mellor
A powerful vignette , Stu to ponder over ; it grabbed me - a sense of dislocation from the past is sometimes valuable. As you get to my age, it all seems so academic in some way.
Thanks so much for you glowing comments on my London extravaganza. I'm on safe ground with a bit of history I think!
Comment is about incarnartion (blog)
Original item by Stuart Buck
"Ignore the unfounded rumours
of pus- in your milk
and other stuff
which are also quite scary,"
said the white coated chap
with the clipboard and cap
and the man who's
in charge of the dairy.
words and foto Tommy Carroll
Comment is about Kody (poet profile)
Original item by Kody
Harry - I note your comment on the Greg Freeman post about the guy in fawn jacket and straw hat - and your
lament for an old "disappearing" England.
Fortunately, all is not yet lost and the sight of Nigel
Farage singing the National Anthem in strong voice at the
close of the Ukip conference in Doncaster is just one sign
of the refusal of the "old " England to go quietly. Indeed,
there is always the action/reaction effect and the changes
being imposed by political decisions show signs of rewakening old forces of feeling that have usually lain
dormant in the homegrown heart.
Comment is about Harry O`N eill (poet profile)
Original item by Harry O`N eill
ray this is gorgeous. what a great character study and the last lines are fantastic. you have captured history and time beautifully and the switch from human to spiritual and enormous is one you are swiftly mastering.
Comment is about THE TALE OF GREGORY MAITLAND (blog)
Original item by ray pool
Sun 27th Sep 2015 03:46
This is beautiful. I like short poems. My favorite part is the how you describe the sun cutting through the leaves.
Comment is about The Possibilities (blog)
Original item by Katherine Carvotta
Having just read your bio, is all your work collaborative?
Comment is about Listen (blog)
Original item by mindful.duo
Picking up on a couple of the observations within this thread.
I find it interesting that the performance poetry element of today's poetry scene feel themselves to be the great unwashed, whereas I, a self-confessed, stoic page poet feel exactly the opposite with the PP boys and girls ruling the poetry roost as it were.
Secondly ranting (and its musical arm Punk) never did anything for me. I've been ranted at for many years and can't remember a word of it, one of my only complaints with Punk as a genre (largely unintelligible) sadly.
Even Ben Elton (one of the loudest ranters of his time) grew up eventually and wrote some quality stuff.
I do however give full respect to Atila for making a living out of poetry (whatever the style) not many can achieve that.
Good review as always Greg.
Graham
Comment is about 'Poetry books will sell if people can relate to what you are writing': Attila the Stockbroker (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
The tenacity behind the words/deeds of the subject of
this excellent interview deserves respect and qualified
admiration. "Qualified" insofar that someone with "little
time for Betjeman" can't be too perfect :-)
I have/had no identification with the punk style and all
that posturing through spitting etc. I think that the
previous generations of music makers/performers had
nothing to learn from such antics and can imagine the
shudders had they been around. But everything to its
time and place perhaps. Style can't be described but
you know it when you find it...and style always lasts
whereas "fashion" and "fads" soon fade, to be recalled by those who were summoned and seduced by their passing attractions.
Comment is about 'Poetry books will sell if people can relate to what you are writing': Attila the Stockbroker (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
A powerful piece full of emotion and hope. I like my heart was full of jumbled clots of emotion.
Comment is about Then and Now (blog)
Original item by Eris
This has the bitter-sweet tang of "nearly". I'm not sure
about "them medical personals" but the theme reminds me of some words from a great song of yesteryear.
"Unrequited love's a bore
And I've got it pretty bad
But for someone you adore
It's a pleasure to be sad."
Comment is about Girl with a diamond heart (blog)
Original item by V'j@¥
Excellent, and well deserved.
Comment is about University awards Jo Bell an honorary degree for services to poetry (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Mark, I am pleased at your passion for performance poetry, though I think we should avoid falling into the trap of criticising those parts of the wider poetry world with which we are as yet unfamiliar. Critical Discourse Analysis has its place in enabling those who are interested in such matters to think more deeply about written material, including poetry, in a wider, political and social context. Interestingly, your comments themselves are a form of critical discourse analysis. So, I commend your desire to critique the approach, and would urge you to be more specific in your analysis than the words 'mumbo jumbo'. Might make a great discussion, so thanks for raising it.
Comment is about 'Poetry books will sell if people can relate to what you are writing': Attila the Stockbroker (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
mark govier
Sat 26th Sep 2015 08:05
Excellent to see this 'genre' of poetry presented so well by Attila in this interview. Ranting, raving, performance poetry, etc. Anything but that which sinister gangs of sub-onanists in too many English Departments want. Heard of Critical Discourse Analysis? Neither had I til recently. Another abstruse mumbo-jumbo 'technique' to 'analyse' poetry. And they want subject the outside world to it!
Comment is about 'Poetry books will sell if people can relate to what you are writing': Attila the Stockbroker (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Hi Michelle, do you write these thoughts down? or share them with friends ? Tommy
Comment is about love is like the ocean (blog)
Original item by michelle hatten
Michelle (predictive text just popped up Obama' lol) welcome to the site :-) Tommy
Comment is about im a good girl just have alot of bad habits (blog)
Original item by michelle hatten
At least your writing on this site gives you a degree of release. Tommy
Comment is about family problems (blog)
Original item by michelle hatten
Harsh, very harsh Michelle. Tommy
Comment is about sadness with anger (blog)
Original item by michelle hatten
Martin Elder
Wed 30th Sep 2015 15:57
Thanks for clearing that up Nigel. Are there any copies of your movie available.
Comment is about Martin Elder (poet profile)
Original item by Martin Elder