First - thanks for your kind comment on my last post.
"We laugh...we jest...
To forestall the final rest!"
Second: love your line "I'm glummer than a raindrop falling on a hearse" (above) in a very funny poem. Priceless!

Comment is about George Stanworth (poet profile)

Original item by George Stanworth

Slight Drawback

Heaton Arts
lady designer
foreign translation
Julian explains
blue trousers
golfer gear
political split
why not!
french poem
ohh lala
doctor ambushed
badly beaten
varied selection
fine poetry
only one
slight drawback
no time
collage poem.

Comment is about Stockport WoL (group profile)

Original item by Stockport WoL

Hi Ann I really enjoyed Breathing, for me the sound of the words almost made me lose sight of the meaning, if that makes sense wonderful )

Comment is about Ann Foxglove (poet profile)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Hey John kind words as ever, the picture is the profile one) its a beautiful painting, of for me a beautiful place

Comment is about Richard Alfred (poet profile)

Original item by Richard Alfred

Thought your Blackpool poem had gone mate,was looking for it then found it here.'Sweet smell from pink hair to eat.Clowns of glass,elephants and rock.' Love it,but didnt it have a posting of its own with the brill pic?
I could taste the candyfloss,feel its sticky sweetness as I read this.'Charm,romance,beauty!nostalgia'

Comment is about Richard Alfred (poet profile)

Original item by Richard Alfred

Thanks for your kind comments on 'eyrie avenue' jonnie - glad you liked it - i hope it stayed just on this side of eerie - and the pay-off is the thought of what/who else is behind those other twitching curtains.
You know - I'd never even thought about the dual connotation of 'horny' and now I do I want to change it :-)
Cheers
Ian

Comment is about Jonnie Falafel (poet profile)

Original item by Jonnie Falafel

thanks for commenting on 'eyrie avenue' Yvonne - it's an older poem of mine and the characters are actual people - glad you liked it
Ian

Comment is about Yvonne Brunton (poet profile)

Original item by Yvonne Brunton

Thank you for the encouraging words Jonnie

Comment is about Paul Sands (poet profile)

Original item by Paul Sands

IKEA is brilliant. Haven't laughed so much for a long time. Very funny.

Comment is about John Coopey (poet profile)

Original item by John Coopey

Thanks for commenting on my old coat Lynn - yes it's one that I think would appeal to women more than men - I do believe that we feel things differently at times.

Any chance of a poem from you on the 52 Hertz theme? x

Comment is about Lynn Dye (poet profile)

Original item by Lynn Dye

The samples were speriamo good I had a scoot through the list. Wonderful stuff. Midnight Bird struck a chord. One thing i notice where i live now is the absence of light pollution. You can see the bands of the Milky Way when there are no clouds. I also thought of the way humans change the ecology of natural habitats. The foxes in British towns and the bears in Canada.

Loved Remembrance to. Very poignant.

Comment is about Paul Sands (poet profile)

Original item by Paul Sands

Cheers for the comments re: The Writing Class me hearty. I'm not much of an Abba fan either (can't you just tell there's a bad joke about Scandiwegian vegetables dying to come forward right about now?)

Comment is about John Coopey (poet profile)

Original item by John Coopey

Cheers for the comments Johnnie. Me too: I love the discipline of tight rhythm and rhyme - it makes me think about my native language in an expansive way. Although I write in free verse too I believe that one shouldn't think of oneself as a poet until structured poetry has been...well, if not mastered then at least taken to task. Is that a contradictory principle for a revolutionary socialist to hold? I can picture many poets thinking me a reactionary fuddy duddy for holding that opinion, but I'd argue that I simply love my craft, this artistic enterprise called poetry too much to be slipshod, to settle for 'just' or 'always' writing free.

Comment is about Jonnie Falafel (poet profile)

Original item by Jonnie Falafel

LOL - everything you've said would be supported by very many people on WOL. You should check out the discussion thread on 'sentimentality', which wandered down that very same route.

There are the right wing extremists who believe that free verse isn't poetry, there are the left wing extremists who believe that ancient rules strangle the essence of poetry and there are the liberals, who believe that knowledge of rules is preferable, even if they aren't adhered to...

Those classifications are just me poking fun of course. There are probably plenty more you could think up. I've written a few poems in strictly metred format. I enjoyed them as an exercise but like to try my hand at free verse now. It's incredibly hard for me to do free verse though. My musical ear want it to flow - and it's a lot harder to write flowing poetry without rhyme - which leads me to abandoning lots of poems.

Rhyming poetry doesn't seem to win many poetry comps though, if you take a look around at what is flavour of the day... Not that that bothers me cos I don't enter them - it's just an indication of where contemporary poetry is going.

Best get off before I end up writing an essay :)

Comment is about Richie Muster (poet profile)

Original item by Richie Muster

Well thanky kindly for your comment on 'The Writing Class', Isobel. Oddly enough it didn't take as long to write as it did to polish up. Shaving off the rough burrs and embellishing it took much longer! I lament the fact that not much rhymed poetry gets written these day: I get the impression that, for many free verse is the default option, to the detriment of good poetic style and construction. I'd be interested in your opinion on this: all I see around me is prose poetry (of which I'm not averse - I write quite a bit myself) which ought to be but one weapon in a poet's arsenal, not the be all and end all. Perhaps I'm an anachronism, but I believe that a budding poet oughtn't to write free until they've mastered structure. Is that contentious do you think?

Comment is about Isobel (poet profile)

Original item by Isobel

Hi Yvonne - I enjoyed your "like for like"
response on my last post (oops...sounds like I'm tempting providence...musically speaking!!)

Comment is about Yvonne Brunton (poet profile)

Original item by Yvonne Brunton

Thanks for your kind words

Richard

Comment is about M.C. Newberry (poet profile)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

very nice

Comment is about Poppy (poet profile)

Original item by Poppy

AVB and the lads John. Dare to believe!!

Comment is about John Coopey (poet profile)

Original item by John Coopey

Thanks for your comment. All is good. I suppose it 's a good thing it caused such a reaction. I hope you shall read more of my writing and I shall read yours also.
Hope all is well.

Comment is about Rachel Bond (poet profile)

Original item by Rachel Bond

Thank you, George!

Comment is about Cathy Bryant (poet profile)

Original item by Cathy Bryant

Love your poetry. Love the imagery - 'Sybil-out-of-Fawlty-Towers-hair'. Love the social commentary. Love the cutting remarks.

Comment is about Elvis McGonagall (poet profile)

Original item by Elvis McGonagall

Very clever and witty. I love it Cathy.

Comment is about Cathy Bryant (poet profile)

Original item by Cathy Bryant

Thanks for your kind comments on "I Had A Bream", Harry

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

Original item by Harry O`N eill

Glad you enjoyed, "I Had A Bream", MC.

Comment is about M.C. Newberry (poet profile)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

We have some things in common! I used to live in the West Midlands (Kenilworth) and I'm a vegan too. I don't know if you were raised Catholic as well, but your poems, particularly Hung Out to Dry, really struck me. Wonderful work. Best wishes. x

Comment is about Jonnie Falafel (poet profile)

Original item by Jonnie Falafel

Thanks Jonnie! Moustache-twiddling is very important. :)

Comment is about Cathy Bryant (poet profile)

Original item by Cathy Bryant

I love this! Very entertaining... now fancy myself as a member of the metrical profession! I will don a beret and twiddle my moustache.

Comment is about Cathy Bryant (poet profile)

Original item by Cathy Bryant

one forgot to mention the fact that the said three inch,eight legged monster was,as they(daughter and son-in-law)were,living in Arizona at the time.
Who knows? they might have been sent divine intervention from Shy Ann! tee hee.x

Comment is about Ian Whiteley (poet profile)

Original item by Ian Whiteley

no problem alex. yeh it was a good night ;)

Comment is about Rachel Bond (poet profile)

Original item by Rachel Bond

re spiders and the like.Twas only recently that my Daughter and Son-in-law nearly became names on headstones had they not been alerted by the dog to the presence of a highly poisonous Sun spider wanting to tuck into bed with them!! phew!xx

Comment is about Ian Whiteley (poet profile)

Original item by Ian Whiteley

hi danny...i read back my comments on your vegetarian poetry. im very sorry i gave you such an onslaught of criticism over the subject. the poem was very good indeed as i remember. please write more xx

Comment is about Danny Metcalfe (poet profile)

Original item by Danny Metcalfe

Thanks for that comment on my write..pleased you found something within that struck a chord.

I have been enjoying your writes, I saw on tv those elephants in Blackpool, holding tails. :(

Comment is about Richard Alfred (poet profile)

Original item by Richard Alfred

Hi really enjoyed the poem on your audio clip Blue is it?
Well whatever the title I enjoyed )

cheers

Comment is about Fay Roberts (poet profile)

Original item by Fay Roberts

Sorry to disappoint you Jonny, but it was Paul Blackburn. A very handsome man indeed, but probably 30-40 years your senior :))

Comment is about Jonny Rodgers (poet profile)

Original item by Jonny Rodgers

Salutations from a space invader )

Comment is about Gordon Zola (poet profile)

Original item by Gordon Zola

bi polar is not usually a condition that 'kills itself' drugs and alcohol have a high percentage hold of that one. people with bi polar usually ride out all of the above creatively and with tremendous resource. id leave suicide to rock stars with too much money for heroin o.ds and make room for a manic depressive with a shotgun pointed firmly from the hip at those who would misunderstand them ;) ive never heard of higher rates of suicide than within the rooms of NA and AA recovery...but yeh interesting article. 50% of 'successful' suicides are drawn out, painful and a result of substance misuse rather than mental illness..but of course the question remains, what is mental illness anyway? an what is suicide?... GUILT usually plays is part either real or percieved.guilt can destroy a person..is guilt a mental illness? you seem to be saying with that post that life is so difficult for the mentally ill that suicide is an easier option. which is kind of funny. life is complicated. suicide is not an easy option. good topic.

Comment is about Kealan Coady (poet profile)

Original item by Kealan Coady

Yep, you are right...(again!)

Comment is about Nigel Astell (poet profile)

Original item by Nigel Astell

Many thanks for your thoughts on "Dick".
I am just enormously thankful that the call to resist Nazism fell on the last previous generation and not ours.

Comment is about M.C. Newberry (poet profile)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

Nigel, I have done that. It will be £18.05 including postage and packing.

Comment is about Stockport WoL (group profile)

Original item by Stockport WoL

thanks for your comments on 'the snowspider' David - the location is very real (deep in the forests of Bannf in British Columbia, Canada) althought the snow spider is........less so!
:-)
Ian

Comment is about David Blake (poet profile)

Original item by David Blake

glad you liked 'the cause celebre' Isobel - the only apt response (because I'm rubbish at French) is 'merci' - will see you at the Tudor later, if you're going :-)
Ian

PS - congrats on winning the competition - well deserved and liked your submission very much

Comment is about Isobel (poet profile)

Original item by Isobel

Can you order five for me John

Thanks

Comment is about Stockport WoL (group profile)

Original item by Stockport WoL

Hi Greg Thanks for comment on 'Territory'. Yes, the 'fine line bwteen civilisation and the natural world' has been a bit of an obsession with me in recent years. I had actually promised myself a break from poetry - thinking I maybe been pushing it a bit- then this one just came out of the blue!

Comment is about Greg Freeman (poet profile)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Hi Johnie - what a jolly good surname Falafel is! Glad to see you using the blogs - hope you are enjoying the site!

Comment is about Jonnie Falafel (poet profile)

Original item by Jonnie Falafel

top work pete, realy enjoyed the audio, dark and funny, truth with humor. great:)

Comment is about Pete Slater (poet profile)

Original item by Pete Slater

No worries Alex - I'm just glad to hear you sounding so chirpy. I sympathise with the ankle - any kind of pain is a real bummer. I'm suffering from an aching right buttock at the moment - the aftermath of back ache - which I totally blame on doing housework - can't think what possessed me ;)

You take care now and I'm glad to hear your son is well. xx

Comment is about Isobel (poet profile)

Original item by Isobel

Hi Cynthia, thanks for the feedback on 'Verbdrift'. The funny thing is, it was originally more free-flowing, written in blank verse with no stanzas, but I tried to rein it in a bit when typing it out - by re-structuring it - editing the odd line and adding a new one.

Perhaps I should have left it how it was, or else put more care into the structure and meter in an effort to improve it like I was intending. Again, cheers for the comment and the encouragement! Much appreciated. David.

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Hi Isobel, well done on the comp. Please e-mail me your address so the splendiferous prize may find its well-deserved home. My e-mail is:
nickjclifton@yahoo.co.uk
chow for now, Nick

Comment is about Isobel (poet profile)

Original item by Isobel

Harry
many thanks for your kind and supportive comments regarding 'azrael' - much appreciated
Ian

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

Original item by Harry O`N eill