The reason this is important is that despite the fact that whilst everybody claims that they are not prejudiced, it's amazing how often they ignore any voice that doesn't sound like their own. Some of those writers will be sharing unfamiliar experiences, using unfamiliar language (dialects for instance), or saying things that might well be disturbing (eg experiences of racism.)

Those things might well not be what people want to hear; but surely exposing yourself to new awareness is part of the point of literature?

Comment is about London literary weekend aims to redress festivals imbalance for writers of colour (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

I submit, MC. You've got me beat on the puns. No, wait! Were they acting on a lead?

Comment is about DOG DANCING (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

JC...
A poor victim of "do or Dai" policing (did someone dial
ca-nine, ca-nine, ca-nine?) that had a licence to kill!
Ray - many thanks. My niece's much-pampered
pooch can be said to be the inspiration.

Comment is about DOG DANCING (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

The one in North Wales isn't dancing anymore, MC. But fancy referring it to the Police Watchdog! Talk about a kangaroo court!

Comment is about DOG DANCING (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

Nice

Comment is about The stranger on her neck (blog)

Original item by Alexandra K. Parapadakis

Hi candice,
I appreciate this as a fine poem, it really is good stuff, well done.
I have to say I've had a great chuckle over

'How my heart quickens
To the rhythm of your social justice diatribes'

Comment is about Fuck Fear (blog)

Original item by Candice Reineke

Hi Ray This versian of Martial Music maybe tidier:

ODE TO MARTIAL MUSIC

It’s always grounded in the two four beat
of boot soles tramping across a field,
the plod of units across terrain
a general stakes his name on.

Holding the line, the kettle pounds
its rhythms of mutual fear. Embroidered
with fifes, the snares are brash,
their prattle false as speeches
on recruitment day. Add some chimes
and majorettes, high stepping,
winsome, their hoopla brings to life
old dogs leering.

When, half-blind, Kutuzov squints
and Bonaparte can’t see for smoke
the squares their blues and reds
are on, a bugle squealing on the flank
proclaims which side has won.

A ram’s horn summons
mountain tribes once it’s time
to lay aside their unseemly feuds,
beset by greater storms.
In freedom’s name the hoplites
trudge, singing solemn odes.

The pibroch wails its fierce lament,
a dirge for hopeless causes:
Hittites, Mayans, Jebusites,
their freaklish pipes and drums
buried now in a ditch
with their tongues and palaces.

The self-righteous blare of brass
has toppled walls into dust.
Sweethearts and crooners
will give your boys an edge.
Subvert the enemy. Psych him out.
Symphonic morse transmits
the victor’s cryptic riff.

Comment is about ray pool (poet profile)

Original item by ray pool

Hi Cynthia This versian of Martial Music maybe tidier:

ODE TO MARTIAL MUSIC

It’s always grounded in the two four beat
of boot soles tramping across a field,
the plod of units across terrain
a general stakes his name on.

Holding the line, the kettle pounds
its rhythms of mutual fear. Embroidered
with fifes, the snares are brash,
their prattle false as speeches
on recruitment day. Add some chimes
and majorettes, high stepping,
winsome, their hoopla brings to life
old dogs leering.

When, half-blind, Kutuzov squints
and Bonaparte can’t see for smoke
the squares their blues and reds
are on, a bugle squealing on the flank
proclaims which side has won.

A ram’s horn summons
mountain tribes once it’s time
to lay aside their unseemly feuds,
beset by greater storms.
In freedom’s name the hoplites
trudge, singing solemn odes.

The pibroch wails its fierce lament,
a dirge for hopeless causes:
Hittites, Mayans, Jebusites,
their freaklish pipes and drums
buried now in a ditch
with their tongues and palaces.

The self-righteous blare of brass
has toppled walls into dust.
Sweethearts and crooners
will give your boys an edge.
Subvert the enemy. Psych him out.
Symphonic morse transmits
the victor’s cryptic riff.

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Yeh I like this too :) I've written a number of ekphrastic poems based on a friend's photographs, and I find it wonderful for opening up the mind to new possibilities.

Comment is about Ode To Lely’s Venus (blog)

Original item by Trevor Alexander

Hi Stu, very belated thanks for commenting on Broken Record - I did writ it thinking of it live, then attended my first open mic and don't know if I'll ever get the nerve to do that again. I might try & work out how to attach audio on here, a little less confronting :)

Comment is about Stuart Buck (poet profile)

Original item by Stuart Buck

Heh heh!! I do like this - its the fucked up bit that really gets me :)x

Comment is about Humans & Poets (blog)

Original item by Pixievic

Hi Vicki, thanks for commenting on Broken Record - glad you liked it. It did come as kind of a chant, something to be heard live, but I unfortunately am not too good at doing the live stuff. I might try & work out how to put a recording on here. Anyway, thanks x

Comment is about Pixievic (poet profile)

Original item by Pixievic

Hi Ray Thanks for your comment on Martial Music. I'm not quite sure about the form of that poem and haver experimented with a version in which I've bunched it up into longer lines.

Comment is about ray pool (poet profile)

Original item by ray pool

Hi Cynthia Thanks for comments on 'Martial Music'. I have in fact bunched it up into longer lines since posting this version.

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Beautiful...we have to look up Stars for a poetry morning. This is touching and beautiful.

Comment is about Falling Stars (blog)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Every word describes her absence.

Soul Deep!!

Comment is about Taxi at the door (blog)

Original item by Tommy Carroll

Great poetry I love it XD

Comment is about Grisly Girl (blog)

Original item by Alexandra K. Parapadakis

I hadn't thought of the sheepskin.

The reference is literal, I was walking home, past the abattoir at midnight and a single sheep bleating, sparked this memory.

and it is picked up in the next verse - to expand on the theme of consumerism.

Comment is about Impression V (blog)

Original item by jeremy young

c:
i'll try to be around a little more.
thank you guys

Comment is about (blog)

Original item by Zach Dafoe

...which kind of implies that "Englishness" is a function of our invaders.
I suspect that very few of us would have pure "English" DNA tracing back to those early times. In fact I recollect a TV programme a couple of years ago when a prominent EDL figure agreed to have his DNA analysed and was mortified to find that he was a right Mongol of DNA strains.

Comment is about THE BATTLE OF STAMFORD BRIDGE (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Well-chosen subject, and very sympathetically developed. Do you, by any chance, mean 'cupped into your hands'? I haven't quite figured out that one line.

Comment is about Five minutes (blog)

Original item by Martin Elder

I like this a lot. Why do you stretch out the poem?

Comment is about I've Got That Feeling.... (blog)

Alexandra, I find this work outstanding in its subject choice, and in your crafting skills to express it so potently.

Was it, by any chance, inspired by the programme 'Call the Midwife' on Sunday evening? Or is its posting pure coincidence? Whichever is the case, it certainly is timely.

Comment is about The stranger on her neck (blog)

Original item by Alexandra K. Parapadakis

Many thanks for your observations, guys.
For me, the most telling line in this is "But Boris Johnson's no-one's fool". He's played "bumbling" like a virtuoso.
Incidentally, I went to the bookies today to put a bet on "Leave" in the Referendum. When she asked me I wanted I told the woman behind the counter I wanted to know some odds. "What on?" She said. "The referendum". "What time's it running?" She asked. Marvellous, marvellous stuff.

Comment is about BORIS THE BIDER (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Hilarious - the obvious physical activity and the undercurrent of tension driving the real importance forward - Like the depths of internal meaning behind the merry melodic 'Twelve Days of Christmas'. And the way that the similarity just 'crashed' at the end, as the 'real' story takes precedence.

I may be so 'out there' as to be just ridiculous. But the thought did occur to me.

Comment is about Taxi at the door (blog)

Original item by Tommy Carroll

Completely engrossing from start to finish - like being harpooned. Terse and fulsome simultaneously - a real talent.

Do I follow - that original paintings were/are often done on sheepskin? Or is the reference completely esoteric? For thrill effect? I'm positive there's a connection, even if I've missed it.

Comment is about Impression V (blog)

Original item by jeremy young

I think this is really good, a fine idea very engagingly expressed. 'a map printed within' is a superb line, among many.

Comment is about Thrill of the Compass Spin (blog)

Original item by Tom

A nice image Mark and I am thinking somehow of a vent's dummy in the interplay as there is always some potential for reaction in the doggy world!!

Regards Ray

Comment is about DOG DANCING (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

in our case 'LOVE-WAS-A MANY SPLENDID THING.But these days we are highly likely to agree with your last line Cynthia.Enjoyable as ever.

P&S

Comment is about The 'LOVE' Month (blog)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Terrific - the spin-off's are countless - always a master touch.

Comment is about It Was to be the Tale of Heroes (blog)

Original item by Corr Lens

a lovely, detailed piece of ekphrasis with an amusing denouement. my wife is currently studying the ancient arts of benin as part of her degree, and i have been trying to write ekphrastic poetry based on some of the stuff she is looking at. its really difficult so this is a great achievement.

Comment is about Ode To Lely’s Venus (blog)

Original item by Trevor Alexander

Thought provoking and spot on - like a master key.

Ray.

Comment is about It Was to be the Tale of Heroes (blog)

Original item by Corr Lens

No one from even the highest levels of apprehension either in or out of Government appears to have the slightest idea what the long or short term advantages or disadvantages of staying in or out of the EU would be.

Boris the clown is cynically using this most important issue as a short cut to achieve his personal aspirations. This amiable bumbling clown on becoming Tory leader will no doubt complete his metamorphosis into the bigger "ephemeral" (we hope) Pillock he's been trying to suppress since his testicles dropped. I'd sooner see Angela Mertle president of a united Europe than him as our PM

I myself have no idea of the possible damage or otherwise that leaving the EU.might bring
But what I am certain of is breaking up the EU. would be a retrograde step from the progress already made toward World unity and peace.

World unity HAS to come eventually, this piece of dirt we all share gets smaller by the day.
You can circumnavigate this planet today in less than the time it took to get from London to York. Only two hundred years ago. And I've been around for eighty five of them.

Comment is about BORIS THE BIDER (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

I really enjoyed this Tommy. The "I" is, I presume, you? If so you must have been pretty sozzled by the time "She" turned up! Really effect structure here too! Loved it!

Comment is about Taxi at the door (blog)

Original item by Tommy Carroll

Thanks Wolfie - more on that story later! For your eyes only.

Thanks Colin. I can understand your rapport here, having read so much of yours. A sort of limbo , an expectancy and a trust in whatever will be.

Cheers both.

Comment is about FLYING HOME (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Another entertaining production from this source.
Boris has popular public appeal in a profession that's
done itself no favours with its activities in recent times.
He's the consummate Marmite politician, but I'd never
underestimate his potential to upset the apple cart for
those die-hard Conservatives so eager to keep us chained to the EU and the vagaries of those 27 other countries
- far in excess of the original nine (I recall) of that
original trading concept we believed in.

Comment is about BORIS THE BIDER (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

It could be said that "English" is ethnically based on the
"back in the mists of time" scenario when Celts, Danes,
Saxons and those Normans had their day forming
what came later. Invasion is too strong a word for the
sanctuary allowed to various factions escaping hard
times in their own lands. It is reported that Queen
Elizabeth 1 actually acted to limit the inflow to ensure
the social stability of her realm in her own time. Later
arrivals were of limited numbers that were willing to
assimilate (like those Russians who fled to America and
"Anglicised" their names...Irving Berlin for Izzy Baline
comes to mind). This small country's generosity taking
in others has led to the irony of it being lectured on
its "obligation" to do it. Good Queen Bess might have
had something to say about that presumption.

Comment is about THE BATTLE OF STAMFORD BRIDGE (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

That the opportunist brain box Gove (the frown) together with the other opportunist nut-cake Boris (the clown) should
put their ambitions to lead the divided Conservative party
before their responsibility to ensure the stability of the nation disgusts me. (that is really how I feel about it).

Grayling and I.D.S. at least made their intentions clear and can`t be accused of hypocrisy.

Comment is about BORIS THE BIDER (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

this is excellent. as graham said, those lines are fantastic.

Comment is about The stranger on her neck (blog)

Original item by Alexandra K. Parapadakis

story of my life that!

well expressed.

Comment is about It Was to be the Tale of Heroes (blog)

Original item by Corr Lens

Love this Tommy, structure's really interesting and I had a sense of foreboding as the booze racked up!

Comment is about Taxi at the door (blog)

Original item by Tommy Carroll

"A bloody blush:
The bite of the hungry.
Teeth she counted like cash,
The molars which paid her fine"

............these are very good lines

Comment is about The stranger on her neck (blog)

Original item by Alexandra K. Parapadakis

Will make sure you use the Gig Guide to advertise your event!

Comment is about Blackstone (poet profile)

Original item by Blackstone

And mine too x

Comment is about (blog)

Original item by Zach Dafoe

I need to suck down some Brit politics and come back me thinks hahah. At face value with no real knowledge of the content it was still a good read!

Comment is about BORIS THE BIDER (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

dark, but i get it. Some of us are fucked, some of us aren't.

Comment is about Is it (blog)

you remain one of my favourite poets x

Comment is about (blog)

Original item by Zach Dafoe

you could have written this one for me Ray - but maybe I'm twisting your words to suit - thanks

Comment is about FLYING HOME (blog)

Original item by ray pool

if WoL had a Like button I'd Like this one.

Comment is about The stranger on her neck (blog)

Original item by Alexandra K. Parapadakis

very good Lynn - I'm resisting the urge to add another musical link (Beatles I've Got a Feeling) - instincts etc x

Comment is about I've Got That Feeling.... (blog)