Just to clarify Laura about the mirror - when the backing starts to deteriorate behind the glass you get that kind of distressed look, black holes if you like, that are apparently sought after by collectors, believe it or not. I think a kind of fungus takes hold. Check it out, lass. Thanks for the interest and I hope you are happy with it. !
Ray
Comment is about SNOBS (blog)
Original item by ray pool
Hi,
I hope you can also give my pamphlet 'Codes of Conduct' some support by nominating it in the pamphlet section of the Saboteur Awards. Cinnamon Press are the publishers.
Thank you,
Neil Elder
Comment is about Deadline nears for Saboteur award nominations (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Well done, PEN. A simple idea, but – as so many of the poets discovered – also one which challenges us and takes us out of our comfort zone. And keeps vulnerable writers in the public eye.
Comment is about 'Privileged' poets engage with writers at risk at English PEN festival (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Plenty worth reading following my modest four lines.
Thanks for all the comments/opinions. Informative and
informed stuff!
Dominic - I am in good company, needing only to cite
the Gershwins' song "It Ain't Necessarily So" from "Porgy
and Bess" - sung by the character Sporting Life (played
in the film version by the inimitable Sammy Davis Jr.).
"The things that you're li'ble
To read in the Bible,
It ain't necessarily so".
I was just more punctilious in the spelling as befits a literary
site. :-)
Comment is about SEPARATION (blog)
Original item by M.C. Newberry
That's another great choice of poem, Ted. Thank you.
Comment is about 'Watching the world swim fast and shining, right before his eyes' (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Love that last line, Chris. :-)
Comment is about Counting Sheep (blog)
Original item by Chris Briggs
Well done, I find myself in arguments all the time, how can they be justified while genuine disabled people renting houses are scared of where their next meal will come from? And why am I always angry ?
Comment is about Panama scandal and atrocities of government (blog)
Original item by Lynn Dye
'Two Tribes' always makes me think of Frankie Goes To Hollywood, so a poem about rugby was the last thing I expected! Nicely done, though. :-)
Comment is about Two Tribes (blog)
Original item by Dusty- Kennedy
Sorry if I took this wrong stu but I could not help myself from laughing hysterically, excellent
Comment is about Haiku: Having cats in Spring (blog)
Original item by Stuart Buck
I like the way you've structured this poem with the two voices set up at opposite sides of the page: really captures the sense of a self at war. Nice work.
Comment is about When The Light Dies And Darkness Thrives (blog)
Original item by Poetryum
Crooked chins and fisticuffs, broken noses and bellies of fluff excellent poem for gentlemen toughs...well done, very good
Comment is about Two Tribes (blog)
Original item by Dusty- Kennedy
Thank you Laura, the lying shysters indeed!
Comment is about Panama scandal and atrocities of government (blog)
Original item by Lynn Dye
saw it at the cinema. it was great. like looking in a mirror and seeing cave staring back.
Comment is about gone (blog)
Original item by Stuart Buck
Ooo no, never even heard of that film, it looks ace! Must watch that, thanks for the rec!
Yeh, I wondered that too. He might not be able to write anything at all. I suspect he will, but you never know. Such a godawful tragedy, that. You do your best to raise your kids with as much information about the real world as possible...to go, armed with that knowledge and yet still come unstuck...heartbreaking.
Comment is about gone (blog)
Original item by Stuart Buck
very, very nice poem Vicki I can just picture the scene.
Comment is about Ghost Dancer (blog)
Original item by Pixievic
Hahaa :D
You ever read his letter to MTV? There's a live clip of him reading it now, on Letters of Note. If you've not seen it, you'll love this :D
http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/02/my-muse-is-not-horse.html
Comment is about gone (blog)
Original item by Stuart Buck
cheers both. i havent written a haiku in ages. rob, you are inspiring people to write this fine old form again it seems!
Comment is about Haiku: Having cats in Spring (blog)
Original item by Stuart Buck
wonderful! he was amazing live. it was a greatest hits tour and people kept calling out songs for him to play. his response - 'i'll play what i fucking want' before launching into deanna.
great stuff.
Comment is about gone (blog)
Original item by Stuart Buck
Fab. I do love a well written haiku. I used to use them to break me out of certain rhythmic patterns that I fall into without noticing.
Hmm. Not done one for ages. Might give it a go!
Comment is about Haiku: Having cats in Spring (blog)
Original item by Stuart Buck
Overcome with envy that you've seen him live. I quite often stick on the Brixton Academy gig for 'that' version of Stagger Lee - it's offensively brilliant, and the band are breathtaking.
Ooo enjoy the book! Reckon you'll love it!
Beg to differ - as poets, we can make up all the words we bloody well choose to. I made up 'shittens', so 'Caveian' is now in the lexiconnnn! :D
ps - a good friend of mine once used 'drim' in her poem, to describe the weather, and the printer changed it to 'grim' even after she'd proofed 'drim'. She was well pissed off!
Comment is about gone (blog)
Original item by Stuart Buck
Stu - love it mate and thanks for making it available for public consumption.
Rob
Comment is about Haiku: Having cats in Spring (blog)
Original item by Stuart Buck
thanks both!
i have never read that laura and i cant believe i have not. i have seen nick cave in concert (i sat next to my emotional man friend stefan who cried like a baby when he played the ship song) and it was phenomenal. murder ballads is an astonishing album and this poem is totally caveian although that isnt a word...
i am ordering that book off amazon as we type.
Comment is about gone (blog)
Original item by Stuart Buck
Sanguine - an under-used word if ever there was one.
Once again Stu, you've given us a crack in the door to something very strange and unsettling, in the vein of Nick Cave, I would say. You ever read And the Ass Saw the Angel?
Comment is about gone (blog)
Original item by Stuart Buck
Fungal mirrors? Hmmm. Interesting image. I shall think on that, doesn't throw anything up immediately mind, but I will ponder.
Comment is about SNOBS (blog)
Original item by ray pool
*applauds*
As you well know Lynn, this is right up my street :) Well done, good piece, the lying shysters.
Comment is about Panama scandal and atrocities of government (blog)
Original item by Lynn Dye
Yes yes yes! Can not WAIT for this!!
Comment is about Linton Kwesi Johnson and Hollie McNish at Liverpool's WOW festival (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
It started off with telling visitors downstairs that the poetry reading was taking place upstairs - - - then more acts turned up and this really set it off! We ended up asking for more time to the staff downstairs who had just cleared all the food and wine away but we managed it and everyone had a ball!
Comment is about Harry O`N eill (poet profile)
Original item by Harry O`N eill
Thank you Jemima and MC, much appreciated.
Comment is about Panama scandal and atrocities of government (blog)
Original item by Lynn Dye
Thanks Harry. I wrote this last Easter, following a very productive day making bonnets for my kids. My boy won a prize, my girl didn't (cue lots of dramatic tears lol)
Thanks for commenting :)
Comment is about Easter Bonnet, Sonnet (blog)
Original item by Helen
Thanks chaps. Yes, it has been a breath of fresh air and I think anyone and everyone who isn't a Spurs fan is willing Leicester to finish top.
What a story! I only wish i'd have had Vardy and Mahrez in my dream team from the start haha :)
Comment is about On Top! (blog)
Original item by Helen
This is so good (and actually so me). Well written, Dusty.
Comment is about Dotage (blog)
Original item by Dusty- Kennedy
I like this, and can identify with it a bit - my memory's been 'spotty' for years!
I also remember Pickie, though - always freezing as I recall!
Comment is about Dotage (blog)
Original item by Dusty- Kennedy
yeh, I was going to cite Aristotle and Plato, though we're not really on nodding terms, but sifting through this I think Harry makes the point best, don't dismiss anyone as outdated for visiting hell on everyone else: and the psychologist might say god is near, that is, "in the last analysis we discover only ourselves."
As a western European, thus somewhat Christian I found Ian's alternative first line adjusted the tone to the spirit I wanted from it. There is an unreliable bible rhyme there somewhere MC: what next?
kind rgards all
Dom.
Aristotle Aristotle
was a bugger for the bottle,
Hobbs was fond of his dram,
and old Descartes was a drunken old fart,
I drink therefore I am.
Monty Python.
Comment is about SEPARATION (blog)
Original item by M.C. Newberry
Wed 6th Apr 2016 23:51
job so well done Lynn,attagirl! Thank you.Jemima.
Comment is about Panama scandal and atrocities of government (blog)
Original item by Lynn Dye
Nice triolet, Helen.
Can't see them blowing it now. The mighty Spurs will do well to settle for top 4.
Comment is about On Top! (blog)
Original item by Helen
I'm old enough to remember the words of Denis Healey -
holding forth about squeezing them (the rich of his day)
"until the pips squeak".
Those that make it,
Who earn or take it,
You can bet your bottom dollar
Won't volunteer to forsake it.
Comment is about Panama scandal and atrocities of government (blog)
Original item by Lynn Dye
Hi Jemima - thanks for the encouragement - I needed a little push, ha ha.
Actually, I can't help wondering if I am actually less shocked about the Panama papers than most. This is because I have known about a lot of it for some years from blogs I've read online, but of course fresh evidence has brought it all to a head, and rightly so too.
Hi Patricia and Stef, I think that's a good suggestion for a title, but seeing as the poem I came up with was on a couple of other issues as well as the Panama papers, I chose something else.
Well, after all, I couldn't have you asking for royalties, could I? Ha ha ha. Thanks guys x
Comment is about SCROUNGERS! (blog)
Original item by Lynn Dye
Thanks P &S. They do wind me up when I meet them!!
Comment is about SNOBS (blog)
Original item by ray pool
Helen,
A lady called Dora won ours...but Annes (all sleek sophisticated feathers) should have got it!
Comment is about Easter Bonnet, Sonnet (blog)
Original item by Helen
This has me imagining Vardey in a crown and a cloak.
(just saying this is hurting me)
Comment is about On Top! (blog)
Original item by Helen
Lads...lads!...didn`t you ever see `The Life of Brian` ?...The Christian `Holy teachings` were written in the glory days of the Roman Empire...Remember? Sanitation, roads, bridges, acqueducts, Baths, dome construction, etc;...not to mention such trifles as philosophy, drama, architecture, law, Military discipline... a working world order. Oh, and I almost forgot Hippocrates and medicine. (my voice is getting tired).
Within a relatively short time, (after the persecution) the
implications of those holy teachings were being debated and scrutinised by some of the best philosophic brains in the empire under the chairmanship of the Emperor.
Some hundreds of years later, the priceless early translations of Aristotle and co (which had by then vanished from the West) were recovered via the efforts of the Moslem Philosophers in Alexandria and Spain who had been studying them. (all of this is in the -uncontested- history books).
We should also not forget that this `scientific` age has brought with it two enormously fatal world wars (And in the last one - which we tend to overlook - two atom bombs were actually dropped on densely populated cities).
But to get back (wearily) to the actual poem (which, on its own is quite reasonable)
As the Christian doctrine of the Fall tries to indicate: Mankind will maim and murder in the name of almost anything.
When The murdering and maiming of others (and oneself) is done in the name of a scripture, then the recognised present-day authorities of that scripture should come out and make themselves clear about such an interpretation of it...I don`t hear of that being done.
We`ll never get anywhere by imagining that the highly scientifically educated terrorists are ignorant savages sitting around campfires.
Comment is about SEPARATION (blog)
Original item by M.C. Newberry
<Deleted User> (6895)
Wed 6th Apr 2016 17:59
<Deleted User> (6895)
Wed 6th Apr 2016 17:18
yep! defo! we go with J.J. on her idea-our suggestion for a title should you have go would be along the lines of......
'keeping it in the family'.....eh what!?
P&S
Comment is about SCROUNGERS! (blog)
Original item by Lynn Dye
Ian -
"I would not seek to separate Christians from their Bible
Or the deeds for which it's liable!"
I need only consider the "Christian Militias" of backward
lands to go along with your reply.
It is a matter for incredulity that in this 21st century
(when you'll probably find a television in a mud hut!)
we still have sections of humanity that fall back on the
products of two thousand years ago and make selective
choices to suit their depredations.
"Love thy neighbour as thyself" is thin on their ground!
Comment is about SEPARATION (blog)
Original item by M.C. Newberry
heavy splitting mawl is in itself a poetic turn of phrase!
i did write a poem this morning and posted it, first time in a while, and it found me in disturbing mood. its funny on here though, as soon as its up its gone due to the sheer amount of stuff posted. not a bad thing though i suppose.
I cant say I have given up the pen entirely, as I am now 10,000 words deep into my first novel which is as unappetizing and strange as you would imagine! it is completely exhausting writing it though, being in someone elses headspace all day.
Comment is about HOW SHOCK TRAVELS (blog)
Original item by ray pool
Always nice to get a comment on prematurely buried poems, Stu! I am at work with a very heavy splitting mawl, and have gone all primitive. I know you're busy, but pick up thy pen and write, please when poss.
All the best to you and yours.
Ray
Comment is about HOW SHOCK TRAVELS (blog)
Original item by ray pool
Helen Elliott
Thu 7th Apr 2016 22:13
Ray,
Firstly, I like the title. Both my 4 year old son and my husband have type 1 Diabetes, and it is very frustrating when people don't differentiate between the types.
If I had a quid for every time someone asked me if I gave my own child too many sweets, and therefore 'gave' him this horrible condition, I would be a seriously rich woman!
As for Type 2, I worry that effects of poor education when it comes to our diet, will have a detrimental effect for many years to come (a bit like smoking of the previous generation).
If people could spend some time in the life of a family with insulin dependent Diabetics, injecting themselves a minimum of 4 times daily, pricking their fingers double that, and dealing with the constant highs and lows of this horrible condition, then they might be think twice about their lifestyle choices.
Thanks for the read :)
Comment is about TYPE 2 DIABETES (blog)
Original item by ray pool