Ah! a mystery. We like a good mystery.

regards,

Graham

Comment is about PROFILER (blog)

Original item by Mitch.C

Quite a thought provoking piece this.
Personally I don't think Superman would use expletives.
Nonetheless, it does carry a complicated message.
Are you trying to measure up to something?
Are you trying to self destruct?
Are you trying to get noticed?

So many questions in this piece.

Well done

Graham

Comment is about where is superman: (blog)

Original item by therearemanyme

You're absolutely right, Ken. I was particularly unsavoury as a youngster. Thanks for commenting.

Comment is about LITTLE BASTARDS (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

feedback appreciated, negative as well I would just like to be noticed

Comment is about where is superman: (blog)

Original item by therearemanyme

Hi John Very topical, very funny.

Bet you pissed in a few ornamental pools (metaphorically) before you got conventional.

Keep it up.

Comment is about LITTLE BASTARDS (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

sad,neat and we loved it!xx

Comment is about SHADOWS (blog)

Original item by Mitch.C

Warm welcome from us too Melissa-You are off to a great start!Keep it up!

Thanks.Patricia and Stef.xx

Comment is about Empty (blog)

Original item by melissa

...and other jokes in a similar vein, Harry!

Comment is about THE MONSTER GNASH (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Hi Harry Thanks for kind comments about my Navvies poem. 'Well-paid but dangerous jobs'- Don't I know it. My own father and his brother died within months of each others in the early 80s after accidents on two separate building sites.

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

Original item by Harry O`N eill

Thanks, Harry. I wonder if the future generations
of citizens of that benighted blood-soaked land
will really appreciate and understand the young
lives from a land far away that were sacrificed there in the cause of enlightenment against the
ignorant armies of the night that still emerge
like foul water from the desert sands.

Comment is about NOVEMBER (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

Tommy,
If That`s all there is why bother changing it?

Comment is about Is (blog)

Original item by Tommy Carroll

Quinnay,
There are `clues` all over the place, The
trick is to have faith in something other than yourself.

Comment is about Faith (blog)

Original item by Quinnay Collier

Fine tribute David.
Mind, it reminded me of starting in a factory (at sixteen) where many of the jobs involved physical `hand-balling`. Automation was introduced on a grand scale and - by the time I retired - those jobs (and the wages therewith) had vanished (from 1700...to 250). This was happening in industry generally.

To `electorally massage` the jobless figures access to benefits like invalidity etc; was relaxed generously (and so was introduced the dependency culture`)

Meanwhile `the City` and the Country (helped by the oil) flourished and (as the the `natives` settled into the benefit culture) immigrants arrived to man the increasingly prosperous service sector (and so was introduced the immigrant problem)

Your piece is appreciating and truthful...your
`big money had spawned` reminded me of the fact
that these were - dangerous - but well paid jobs.

Comment is about Navvies (blog)

Original item by David Cooke

John! John!,
Just because the guy was feeling a bit peckish!

Comment is about THE MONSTER GNASH (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Courtney,
I love that `pity party` bit!

It so succinctly describes that `having mercy on my own pitiful situation` which infects some of the poetry we read today.

I also like those triumphal last two lines ( we don`t often hear that sort of spirit)

And one thing we`ve all got to admit: Jesus certainly `went through it` all right.

Good Sunday morning rouser!

Comment is about Victorious (blog)

Original item by Courtney

Very appropriate M.C.


(I was shocked to see the photos of all those young lads killed in Afghanistan,not one of them over nineteen)

Comment is about NOVEMBER (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

Ian,
An excellently rhymed and effecting sonnet
which demonstrates the capability of the form for all kinds of purposes.

(I liked particularly line two)

Comment is about An Unexpected Ghost In The Yorkshire Post (blog)

Original item by Ian Whiteley

Thank you that does sound a lot better...
I like how I can express myself in deep thought but never in a creative way..

Comment is about Empty (blog)

Original item by melissa

Thanks for looking in on my patch Solar and the Wildes! Appreciate your comments!

Comment is about Love Isn't (blog)

Original item by Steve Higgins

Hi there Melissa,and a warm welcome to you.

Great poem.Would you mind if I offered my version of it,respectfully of course?

Enforced blackness
swirls within
controlling
defeating the ability
to overcome
and rescue myself
from its tenebrous invasion.

Sadness
is an old unwanted companion
settled,
hand in hand with anger
both clouding my judgement
with such ease
that to deter
the waste of anymore tears
any more futile emotions
I succumb to
and accept the wearing of
cloaking emptiness.
_______________________________

Best regards to you.Hope you enjoy your time on Write out loud.x

Comment is about Empty (blog)

Original item by melissa

Yes, what beauty and magic there is to be found in our moody Pennines for those of us with an eye (& words) for it. You have captured them well here, Roy :)

Comment is about The Pennines (blog)

Original item by Roy Chetham

CBT: re "is" reminds me of the following quote: "Philosophers have only interpreted the world, the point, however, "is" to change it." Karl Marx

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

"Philosophers have only interpreted the world, the point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx

Comment is about Is (blog)

Original item by Tommy Carroll

you have our sympathies and praises.xx

Comment is about On one blank piece of paper (blog)

Original item by iLmm

young lady-the last line sums it all up-
very well!

we thoroughly enjoyed this poem.xx

Comment is about Now I know (blog)

Original item by Spoken_Thoughts

we respect,admire and salute your persistence.


xx

Comment is about Poem: Sator Squares (blog)

Original item by Joseph J. Breunig 3rd

.. google's wrong .. there's no such thing as 'off of' .. that's the USA trying to destroy the English language .. I would've put 'rainbows of porcelain' ..

Comment is about Mindful Bath (blog)

.. do you mean .. 'bouncing rainbows off porcelain' .. or .. 'bouncing rainbows of porcelain' ... you can't have both ...

Comment is about Mindful Bath (blog)

This is sumptuous. Some wonderful soundscapes in there and so evocative.

Slightly marred for me though, if you don't mind me saying, in that your punctuation is inconsistent, and you are starting every line with a capital letter. It jars on the eyes.

And did you mean to say steam, rather than stream?

Comment is about Mindful Bath (blog)

This is splendid - the ambiguity of 'is-ness' and 'there-ness' -in one sense tied at the throat and, in another, polar opposites.

Reminds me of a single-coloured ball floating in water, and spinning; you never know which side is up.

Or 'philosophy' in general.

Comment is about Is (blog)

Original item by Tommy Carroll

You're right MC. Competitively I played more rugby than football. Then you got or gave an honest thump.

Comment is about THE MONSTER GNASH (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Yes, Graham, you need to be of a certain age to remember our glory. But that photo of Mackay holding a squealing Bremner by the shirt lapels -priceless.

Comment is about THE MONSTER GNASH (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

HI Cynthia As ever your words of encouragement are greatly appreciated. There's a novel by ALexander Cordell which is called 'The Song of the Earth'. I read it in my teens but can't remember a thing about it!

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

I read a book called 'Song of the Earth'( whose author escapes me just this minute, but easy to check if anyone is interested.). In addition to canal transportation, part of it dealt both passionately and poetically with this same theme of 'navvvies' on the railways and overpasses. It struck home for me in its realism, scale and compassion.

This is a great poem. Their 'curtained lives' is excellent. You have a deft turn of phrase, David.

'Navvies' have been forever, haven't they? And continue to be. I remember studying about Oriental labour to build the United States and Canadian railways across the North American continent - the conditions and the stigma.

Comment is about Navvies (blog)

Original item by David Cooke

JC - you've reminded me of the line from a song -
"Get out and get under..."
I wonder if there's any connection?!

Comment is about RELATIVE VALUES (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

Monster fun!!
In my young days it was fighting and hitting
Nowadays, it's biting and spitting...
And both lots hoped they wouldn't get caught
In what we watchers thought was sport!

Comment is about THE MONSTER GNASH (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

This has a certain bite to it JC
Good to see you got a real player's name in there too!

ps My Grandson has for some un-beknowing reason started supporting THFC.

I overheard him telling his cousin "Spurs have got a fantastic past"

Oh dear!

Happy Halloween JC

Comment is about THE MONSTER GNASH (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

This asks more questions than it answers. Brilliant!
Well done Becka

Comment is about Choices (blog)

Original item by Becka Brush

Memories can be dead weights or foundations: I think we drag them around from relationship to relationship like they were building-sites in need of a contractor.

Comment is about Choices (blog)

Original item by Becka Brush

Hi Dave Glad you liked my Navvies!

Comment is about Dave Bradley (poet profile)

Original item by Dave Bradley

I would endorse what Greg says. Visiting St. Leonard's at Chapel-le-Dale opened my eyes. The poem is a worthy tribute to forgotten people who had it very tough.

Comment is about Navvies (blog)

Original item by David Cooke

An interesting and worthwhile subject for a sonnet, David. Many railway navvies didn't move on, of course, but remain in cemeteries up and down the wonderfully scenic Settle & Carlisle line, for instance. The good old Victorian days, before the dreaded health and safety.

Comment is about Navvies (blog)

Original item by David Cooke

'pull me...pull me by the chains that binds us'

what a killer line!
what a cool poem.x

Comment is about Its Called the Universe (blog)

Original item by jean lucy thompson

A very,very,worthwhile read.

Comment is about Waiting for Nancy (VII) (blog)

Original item by Gray Nicholls

concise-to the point,and-
wonderfully open ended!

jeez! I've actually got off my prim posterior and commented(deservedly)on one of your poems!

Love'em all despite my laziness anyway.

Nice one Natalie.x

Comment is about It Is What It Is (blog)

REVIEW: WRITE ANGLE'S OCTOBER EVE- THE INIMITABLE BRENDAN CLEARY – AND MORE...
Brendan Cleary started with having 'Woke up in Czechoslovakia after a splitting headache from 80% vodka, he is speaking the language, has a beautiful Czech wife and three beautiful Czech children, a Czech house..., and having read Kafka in the original and Philip Marlowe in translation....' not knowing how it happened....It's obvious Brendan loves performing, loves people and loves writing poetry. Hard to separate one from the other. He 'is' his poetry. From 'I never met anyone named Steve, to his unreciprocated 'love affair' with Kylie Minogue, to tender poems about his dead brother, Martin, (called 'Faceman or Facey or Big Face)' – his adoration of Manchester United,...he includes a quote by Ian Hamilton, 'Did he think poetry at perfect, could bring back the dead'. Brendan believes 'Yes, the Faceman is back with us'.
He's a powerful, yet gentle poet who reads with a strong lilting Irish dialect – a big man who moves around a lot 'I'm not photographical', he smiles warmly, 'That way I can't be caught'. His language is simple and honest. He performs each poem like prose, yet seeing his poems written, you see how concise and profound they are. He has an intimacy with language that can address incomprehensible loss with profound clarity. 'Wait till you hear his Nina Simone poem' Barry Smith, Chichester Open Mic, whispered, – and I waited for 'It's Our Dance', 'Every Sunday I play Nina Simone's 'my baby just cares for me', and with a different flower in your hair every week, you spring out from the bar, and I leave the mixing desk and we dance with our hangovers....and for a few precious moments, it's as if we have all swallowed the moon and everyone is lighter and the world might not ever end'. 'There are pubs that have 'happy hours', he said, 'but I drink at unhappy hours'! 'People are my friends and they matter'! Brendan brings humour, pathos and love (betting at the track as well). We highly recommend you see him if you can, and buy all his books, including 'Face'.
Following, Erfran Deliri, (Iranian) from Tasmania, now on UK tour, told in poem and prose how he lives in a cabin in the woods, sometimes not seeing anyone for weeks. (If Brendan never met a Steve, he did as Erfan produced his new book, 'Estaban's (Stephen's) Conclusions)' . He talked of being a 'p/t lover and a f/t hater', and tried to hang himself. His father, imprisoned at 17, was then exiled. In 1984, brought his family to Australia only to hear, 'Why should this country take in a useless immigrant'. 'We were swimmers in the world of return to the soul of the universe. We are the flying fish of these eternal waters'. A strong poet with a mission. 'Ten thousand moments of hindsight will never amount to a single moment of clarity in the present....' A good poet with much to say.
Helen Whitten did 'Anthology', a clever and lovely poem, inspired by the books Howard Jacobson would never give away- which got her thinking which books helped form her life. 'Starting with 'Walter de la Mare, then Byron, Yeats, Pascale...'Who's that knocking at my door', to Pasternack, 'who's that crying at my door'...an infant son who died. Now she wonders 'which poet will next direct my hand, inflame my heart'. Dave Allan, now a professional poet, performed 'Flush Me Gently', (inspired by 'One Tree Books' toilet), 'I will turn the other cheek. Leave me up or leave me down. Just flush me gently'...clever, well performed as ever by our 'latest open mic star'.
Richard Hawtree, as oblique as highly descriptive, and interesting to listen to, did 'A burning of Sappho's coins AD1023 – a story made up in the Renaissance – the burning of Sappho's poems. Then read 'Vespar Vulgaris'. Last summer 1915, a vast number of wasps – the Queens appeared...(to do with former Dragons boss Paul Turner, a serious contender to become director of rugby at cash-strapped London Wasps – we wonder but doubt...). Caroline Blackburn then performed 'You know what Thought did'. 'He removes you from what is seen by mankind'. Would like to see more of her work.
Brian Clarke did a highly evocative World War I poem, 'Remembrance', well received by the audience – 'I don't know where he was born..if his name was Wolfgang, Hanz or Fritz...but I remember his blue eyes... a throbbing silence...his helmet falling...' A strong piece of work. Barry Smith, of Chichester's Open Mic, did 'Transubstantiation', about Elvis on the rise at Bryston. 'I know it was him. He was separating the twin black sheep from the herd. (what is real and what isn't?) Then, 'Antigone', 'a dysfunctional family, including a rebellious adolescent, murder, incest, crackdown of adult authority – no, not Coronation Street – summarising the story of Antigone, daughter of Oedipus'. Barry amazingly does it again! Bringing history to the present in his inimitable style.
Chris Sparkes followed with 'Strong Hooch', summoning random flashes of memories - his brother found hanging on a shoelace; being called 'a hippie academic', fishing, winning at arts festivals, jazz ...being shown man doesn't have a soul...' nostalgia in poetic form! Very good poem. Richard Davies, who restores houses, then did 'Cousteau in a Car' exploring birds (as flying fish) imaginative and well done. Then, 'Fish in Stone', where he describes a relic he found. 'Death has such strange dominions'. Interesting and creative ideas! Audi Maserati sang to his guitar, making it sound 'mystical', called 'The day Franz Dostoevsky found the original transcript of Voltaire's 'Princess of Babylon' in the inside pocket of his second best suit'. (if you didn't guess, that was the title) Then, 'Enough is Sunshine', describing 'A tree is not a forest. A grain of sand is not a beach' lovely song, well sung as only Audi can do.
James Philips, aka Philip Javens, back after a long break, played 'My Funny Valentine' on his keyboard, as well as 'something lost that can't be found again', inspired by d'Angelo,. Good playing. His music was wonderful. We hope he returns soon.
Lastly, Sven Stears, soon to start his own slam/open mic called 'Inkbomb', in Kent – we'll keep you posted – did '3434' about a poet who's a rebel wanting to stop all restraints, growing up with his poetry, and ending with 'no poem can stand on its own. It needs the audience to get it to 10. The audience was invited to join in, and they did.
The raffle for free meals for two at 'Fez', the local Turkish restaurant, was won by Phyllida Carr. Another good and full night was had by all, and we're looking forward to Patience Agbabi as our November guest. Another great performer!

Review is about Petersfield Write Angle Poetry and Music + OPEN MI on 21 Oct 2014 (event)

I saw him and Roger McGough in the Liverpool cathedral crypt performance a few years ago. Whilst both were excellent, it was Patten who come across as the real poet, less flash, more considered.

Comment is about 'When you're very young it's not hard to change the direction of your life': Write Out Loud interviews Brian Patten (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

This is a wonderful review Laura, superbly crafted.

Comment is about Fishing in the Aftermath: Salena Godden, Burning Eye (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

thanx dazzer :)

Comment is about dazzer (poet profile)

Original item by dazzer

I'd sooner be without my guzunda than my guzinta.

Comment is about RELATIVE VALUES (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry